34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



owners in this country may find a little comfort in that fact. 

 I believe it is the case that in Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc., 

 the forests near the sea have been pretty well exhausted, and 

 now they have to go farther from the coast which means labour 

 and transport which, I believe, in the future will raise the price 

 of foreign pit-wood. There is the question of sea freight, which 

 may be higher after the war than it was before. I agree that 

 in the future, the price of pit-wood may be higher than the pre- 

 war standard. The great thing is to get the pit-wood in equal 

 quality. It is very important that it should be straight, clean- 

 grown, and seasoned. If you, by your science in silviculture, 

 can improve the quality of the trees, it will go a very long way 

 indeed. At the present time, through shortage in supply, we 

 have to accept timber which after the war, I should think, would 

 not be accepted for pit-wood use. I would like to warn those 

 who are supplying us just now that, after the war, when we have an 

 available supply from abroad we will have to be more particular 

 than we are now in accepting poor quality of timber. I refer 

 more to straightness and cleanness. A great many branches are 

 coming in which are rather crooked, and other things are being 

 accepted which, in normal times, looking to the supplies from 

 abroad, would have to be rejected. Another speaker mentioned 

 the question of colliery companies helping silviculture by 

 planting themselves, or assisting those who are prepared to 

 plant, and that is a question which has not received any 

 consideration whatever. I am afraid that the coal trade as a 

 whole would be very chary about entering into such an unknown 

 domain as the planting and the culture of trees. It is a matter 

 with which practically all of us are unfamiliar. I am afraid it 

 is a matter about which I cannot hold out very much hope of 

 it being favourably accepted by the mining industry. It is, 

 however, a matter which might be put before the coal trade 

 collectively or individually for its consideration. At present I 

 can make no pronouncement, nor do I feel justified in expressing 

 my own opinion. One speaker spoke about home-grown oak 

 as being superior to American. Our principal trouble with 

 home-grown oak has been the crookedness of the trees beyond 

 a certain size. If you want to get a pair of waggon trams 

 out of a tree, it has to be a pretty big tree and i8 feet long 

 in a straight line, which is rather hard to get in the home 

 forests. I shall be very pleased if forest owners can grow oak 



