92 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Germany, with a large population on a small area, has a yearly 

 consumption of 19 cubic feet timber and 18 cubic feet firewood, 

 thus releasing a large surplus of coal for exportation. Other 

 countries, excepting England, show similar figures. New 

 Zealand, with its comparatively small population, is already 

 importing half a million pounds' worth of timber yearly, and 

 much coal. 



"The millable forests of New Zealand contain over double 

 the timber per acre of the great national forests of the United 

 States of America, covering an area of over twice the total land 

 area of New Zealand. The market value of New Zealand 

 timber in the forest is now nearly double European prices ; and 

 the growth of the trees, if the forests were cultivated as in 

 Europe, would probably be about double the growth of European 

 timber trees. The five chief timbers of New Zealand — kauri, 

 totara, rimu, white pine, and the beeches — grow decidedly 

 faster than the five chief timber trees of Europe — the oak, 

 beech, Scots pine, spruce, and silver fir. Thus, if we take the 

 figures published by the late Mr Matthews in his book Tree 

 Culture in New Zealand, and compare them with the standard 

 yield-tables of European foresters, published in Sir W. Schlich's 

 Manual, it is seen that the New Zealand timber trees grow, on an 

 average, about twice as fast in diameter and from 25 per cent. 

 to 50 per cent, faster in height-growth. Speaking in a general 

 way, European timber trees are cut at about one hundred years 

 of age, when they are about i foot thick. Kauri is fit to cut 

 at one hundred years, and is then 2 feet in diameter. If the 

 New Zealand trees were grown under the most favourable 

 conditions, as in the cultivated forests of Europe, it seems safe 

 to say that the growth would be twice as fast. New Zealand 

 forests are nearly all coniferous and the most valuable in the 

 Southern Hemisphere. According to the American official 

 publication, Forest Resources of the ll'orld, New Zealand should 

 be a great timber-exporting country. 



"The results achieved in European forestry when one looks 

 into the figures are phenomenal. They are more striking than 

 the advances made along those lines of development that are 

 more familiar to Englishmen, such as agriculture, mines, 

 fisheries, roads, etc. One hundred and fifty years ago there 

 were no Forest Departments in Europe, and most of the forests 

 were in worse order than the present demarcatable forest of new 



