FORESTRY EXHIBITION. 2 5 



which were shown side by side for the purpose, the difference 

 was very marked in favour of the home product. The only 

 respect in which the foreign timber is superior to the home- 

 grown is in its straightness and the greater length of scantling 

 which can be got from it, but this is due to scientific treat- 

 ment and not to any advantage in soil or climate. 



In the coniferous timber section many fine samples were 

 shown of Scots pine, larch, Douglas fir and spruce, but some 

 leeway has to be made up in the case of spruce lining boards. 

 The home-grown article lacks the fineness and evenness of grain 

 seen in spruce lining from the north of Europe. For many 

 years the spruce has been very much neglected, and most of 

 the home-grown spruce timber available has to be taken from 

 much too open stands or from partially isolated trees ; as a 

 consequence, it is wider ringed and less free from knots than is 

 generally the case with imported spruce. Further, no attention 

 whatever has been given to selection of the type of tree or race 

 from which our plantations have been formed. 



Few conifers, if any, vary so much as the spruce, and undoubted 

 biological races exist with varying qualities as timber producers. 

 With a careful selection of the proper type, and its allocation to 

 areas where suitable conditions for its growth exist, spruce 

 timber of a cleanness and quality of grain equal to the imported 

 timber of this species can be grown in this country. Isolated 

 cases are known in which home-grown spruce timber has been 

 graded as first-class quality. 



The scantlings and manufactured articles of Scots pine clearly 

 showed that home-grown timber of this tree can hold its own 

 with the finest products of the Continent. 



Another interesting exhibit which further illustrated the 

 superiority of home-grown hardwoods was one of tool handles, 

 etc., of ash, oak and elm from the Galashiels district. Nothing 

 better than the tool handles of ash, either in quality or workman- 

 ship, could be produced anywhere, and such handles, if the cost 

 is not too great, should do much to supplant the American 

 hickory handles which are so largely imported. 



Of the larger specimens, there were many samples of scantlings 

 of various sizes of both hardwood and coniferous timbers, 

 which attracted great interest, including a full complement of 

 oak scantlings for a railway waggon frame, which was laid out 

 in front of the pavilion. There were also samples of railway 



