THE UTILISATION OF SMALL-WOOD FOR TURNERY, ETC, 145 
IX. The Utilisation of Small-Wood for Turnery and other 
Purposes. By A. T. Witiamson, 7 Kew Terrace, Edin- 
burgh. 
The profitable disposal of the large quantities of small-wood 
necessarily produced from the clearing of large timber is a question 
that would seem to have passed beyond the reach of ingenuity to 
solve. The changed position in which this country has been 
placed has been entirely brought about by the introduction of 
manufactured small-wood goods from America; and these having 
been received by thread and textile manufacturers with a consider- 
able degree of favour, the trade has gradually developed to large 
dimensions, and now it forms a very important item in the list of 
the country’s timber imports. It is doubtful if this favour was 
bestowed on the American produce because of its superior quality 
for bobbin-making, seeing that considerable divergence of opinion 
still exists on that point. The outstanding fact that these goods 
were supplied at a price little beyond one half of that usually paid 
for the home manufactured article, was the main fact that weighed 
with the consumer in deciding to supply himself with the imported 
article. 
At first the American consignments were very limited in 
amount, only small parcels being sent as an experiment by the 
regular steamers to the principal british ports. The greatly 
reduced price at which they were sold was a point that attracted 
the attention of the consumer, and was an influence impossible to 
resist. Finding the goods suited the purposes for which they were 
intended equally well with those he had hitherto been accustomed 
to use, a successful development ensued as a natural consequence. 
The new departure had the effect of stimulating the genius of the 
turner and mechanical inventor on this side, which led to the 
construction of machinery with a greater capacity for production, 
and the invention of appliances that would reduce the cost of 
labour. In this a large advance was made in the direction of 
rapid and cheap production. Notwithstanding continued and 
renewed efforts, the home producer felt himself so largely handi- 
capped that the industry of turning to a great extent declined, and 
as a consequence reduced the value of the class of small wood that 
had hitherto found an outlet in this direction. Much machinery 
that had been constructed specially for bobbin work fell into 
VOL. XIII. PART I. K 
