356 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOGIETY. 
The Russian supplies come second in their amount. These are 
represented by shipments chiefly from Riga, Cronstadt, and Arch- 
angel. The Riga shipments are principally composed of spruce 
deals and battens, while the Cronstadt and Archangel are largely 
composed of Scots fir, or redwood. Swedish timber has never been 
able to compete with Russian in respect of quality, and for all 
high-class joiner work architects demand that Archangel or St 
Petersburg redwood be used. The extent of the Russian forests 
is not known; and with regard to the prospects of their supplies 
being maintained, there is at present no question, nor will be for 
generations to come, in the ordinary course of events. A notable 
change has taken place during the past few years in connection with 
Russian oak, which forms a rather important item in the exports. 
Formerly Riga, on the Baltic, was the chief port of shipment, 
the oak being brought from the forests some hundreds of miles 
to the southward; but now the largest proportion of the oak 
grown within the same regions as formerly is conveyed south- 
wards, and is shipped at Fiume, in Austria. The oak shipped 
at that port has acquired a high reputation for cabinet and 
furniture work, 
The German imports are comparatively small, and are largely 
made up of pit-wood and rough timber. Germany can scarcely be 
considered a great timber exporting country, being largely indebted 
to Sweden for her own supplies. France sends us, particularly 
to the British Channel, immense quantities of pit-wood, but her 
home supplies of heavy timber are quite inadequate to meet her 
wants. France imports, from Sweden and other countries, several 
millions of loads to meet home wants. 
The supplies of timber from British North America, chiefly 
from Canada, amounting to 1,366,571 loads, although only half 
of the Swedish, represents quite as much money value. The chief 
item is the American pine timber, a substitute for which has not 
been found in European countries. The maintenance of supplies 
from this source must be adversely contrasted with Sweden. 
Writers on forestry have deplored the waste in the American 
forests, and it is generally admitted that it is prodigious. At the 
same time, the vastness of the forest areas have maintained the 
equilibrium of the trade. While most kinds of timber have 
been, through competition, kept to the lowest value, pine timber 
from Canada has not only maintained its price, but has actually 
