THE COMMERCIAL ASPECT OF BARK-PEELING. 447 



restricted, and this circumstance will react in favour of an ini- 

 pi'oved price for the coppice bark, the supply of which it is 

 desirable should be augmented and the production of it encouraged. 

 The prime oak will then be left to hold its own in point of quality, 

 and maintain a successful competition in the timber market against 

 the intense competition it has to stand in the importations from 

 America, Austria, and Russia. The exigencies of the present 

 altered conditions of our industrial trades demand a closer study 

 by foresters in matters of this kind. In their deliberations they 

 must consider the commercial and industrial position in which we 

 are placed, and adapt the science of forestry to current wants, or, 

 in other words, be actuated by the law of supply and demand, 

 present and prospective. 



As already pointed out, the position occupied by larch bark as 

 regards price is very unsatisfactory, and, to all appearance, is 

 likely to remain so. In point of fact, it is being continually 

 aggravated by the growing favour which is extended towards 

 the peeled wood by consumers of the smaller sizes of larch 

 trees. It is also much encouraged by timber merchants, 

 seeing that the saving effected in the item of railway carriage 

 affords ample compensation to meet the expenses incurred in the 

 process of peeling, so that the price realisable for the bark, 

 whatever it may be, is in a great measure an item of pi'ofit. One 

 effect which this increased production of larch bark may have is 

 that the price reduced to a tempting rate may encourage tanners 

 to again resort to a more extensive use of it, and by discarding 

 the substitutes now in vogue, create a fresh reaction by increasing 

 the consumption, which would enhance considerably the value of 

 the wood to the cultivator. This position can only be attained as 

 the work of time, and certainly no evil can result from over- 

 stocking the market with larch bark, and encouraging its extended 

 use by tanners by offering it to them at tempting prices, as a 

 return by them to the old appliances will stimulate a greater 

 permanent demand in the future. 



