president's address and discussion. 105 



produced from your plant, and you may not make more than 

 ^^50 profit on that. The way I look at it is that ^^300 or 

 ;^4oo has been spent on labour, and you are employing 

 labour in the country districts. Even if you have only a 

 small profit, if it is a reasonable profit, it seems to me that 

 it is our duty to encourage that class of industry in order to 

 establish the labour where we want to see it established." 



The Chairman said : — " On the subject of taxation Mr 

 Galloway has received a letter from Colonel Malcolm of 

 Poltalloch, which seems to come in rather appropriately at the 

 present time." 



Mr Tom B. Jones, Timber Merchant, Larbert, said: — "As 

 Dr Borthwick has appealed to timber merchants particularly, 

 I shall endeavour to respond. As a Scottish home timber 

 merchant, I should like to make a few statements which ex- 

 perience and time will, I think, duly verify: — (i) That home- 

 grown Scots pine and spruce pit-wood for mines, if selected and 

 seasoned, is equal to foreign pit-wood ; (2) that battens cut from 

 selected Scots pine and spruce are equal, and often superior, to 

 foreign redwood and whitewood ; (3) that selected larch is suit- 

 able for practically every purpose where pitch pine is specified, 

 and at the same time possesses two great advantages, viz. 

 greater strength and durability ; (4) that for such purposes as 

 those of ship-builders, railways, mines, etc., with some exceptions, 

 selected British hardwoods are equal, and in many cases superior, 

 to foreign hardwoods; and (5) that for furniture and panelling 

 purposes there is more variety of character in the 'figure,' 

 and therefore greater beauty in British hardwoods than there is 

 in foreign hardwoods. I do not think the general public fully 

 realise the value of vast woodlands to the nation. Irrespective 

 of planting and cultivation there will probably be spent per 

 acre in wages alone, before a good average timber crop is cut 

 down, sawn up, and delivered in the home market, about jQe^o 

 per acre, or, in the case of a million acres, ;^5o,ooo,ooo sterling; 

 and assuming a rotation cut you get, fifty years hence, per 

 each million acres, steady and healthy employment for about 

 10,000 woodmen, representing, with their families, probably 

 50,000 people. 



" Perhaps the following suggestions may be found worthy 

 of consideration : — The replanting of natural woodlands of not 

 less than 10 acres in extent to be compulsory upon owners 



