I 6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for the price they are paynig, and should look at the fact that 

 the timber which comes from abroad, owing to it being better 

 seasoned, is ready for creosoting at the time of its purchase. 

 The timber which is available in this country, being fresh timber 

 delivered shortly after it is cut, does not take on creosote so 

 readily. I was talking only yesterday to a gentleman who 

 superintends that department in connection with railway work, 

 and he told me that while a sleeper seasoned for twelve months 

 would absorb three gallons, a sleeper cut only one or two 

 months would scarcely absorb any creosote at all, for it would 

 not penetrate to any depth. When I tell you that the life of a 

 creosoted sleeper when it is properly done is about twice the 

 length of an uncreosoted sleeper, you will realise how not un- 

 naturally railway officials look to the importance of having 

 good seasoned sleepers placed at their disposal. I hope that 

 the result of your meeting will be to foster and develop the 

 growth of home-grown timber. I am afraid that on the railways 

 we would be somewhat sanguine if we were to look forward to 

 an immediate result from what is going on at the present 

 moment, but I do hope that in the not distant future it will be 

 possible for the railway companies to obtain a much larger 

 supply of the timber which they are using from British sources, 

 and not from foreign countries." 



Mr C. Augustus Carlow, of the Fife Coal Company, addressed 

 the meeting on -'The Utilisation of Timber by Mines." He 

 said : — " I appear as a very poor substitute for Mr Nimmo, the 

 chairman of the coal trade, who, in his many duties, has been 

 called to attend meetings in London of very great importance. 

 Unfortunately, it is only within the last twenty-four hours that I 

 have been informed of this meeting or of the subject on which 

 I am to address you. I therefore trust that you will excuse me 

 if I am brief and put what I have to say, which, I fear, will be 

 somewhat scrappy, before you in a very crude and unpolished 

 manner. I quite sympathise with Sir Charles Bine Renshaw 

 in what he said as to the difficulties of carrying on the railways 

 or any industry of such magnitude and importance in these 

 times, and I can say exactly the same thing in endeavouring to 

 carry on the coal-mines. One of the principal difficulties has 

 been the shortage of pit-wood. Frior to the war practically the 

 whole of our pit-wood was brought from abroad. You will 

 therefore understand the amount of dislocation which our busi- 



