FORESTRY CONSIDERED AS A KEY INDUSTRY. 35 



arranged and reasoned argument. The interest aroused 

 exceeded the hopes of the most hopeful. 



The Society is deeply indebted to the many contributors of 

 valuable specimens. The success is mainly due to those 

 contributors, and to the efforts of Mr Machison and Mr 

 Whitton to make the best possible use of material supplied. 



5. Conference on the subject of the Grading, Seasoning, 

 and Utilisation of Home-Grown Timber, held in 

 the Christian Institute, Bothwell Street, Glasgow, 

 on Wednesday, 6th August, at 2 p.m. 



In opening the proceedings, Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, who 

 was in the chair, said : — " Gentlemen, I have to thank you very 

 much for coming in such large numbers in response to the 

 invitation we ventured to send to you. This meeting, I think, 

 is perhaps as representative a gathering as has ever assembled 

 in Scotland to consider the question of the use of home-grown 

 timber. We have here, besides a large representation of Timber 

 Merchants, both official and individual, representatives of 

 Architects, Surveyors, Railway Companies, the Office of Works, 

 the Ministry of Health, the Department of Building Materials, 

 the Interim Forest Authority, and other bodies interested in the 

 subject. I will explain as briefly as I can what caused us to 

 ask you to come together. Let me say at once that neither I 

 nor those who have been working with me in the Timber Supply 

 Department flatter ourselves that we are in a position to teach 

 timber merchants or anyone else their business. We have been 

 compelled by the work we have been doing during the last two 

 or three years to take a bird's-eye view of the situation, and it 

 is owing to our observations in that respect that we have asked 

 you to come together. For the first time the question of timber 

 growing in this country has become a subject of fairly wide 

 interest. Many people regard it chiefly from the point of view 

 of rural development, a matter in which our country is strangely 

 behind most countries of the world. That does not concern 

 us to-day. We are concerned with the practical side of the 

 business, and that is the use of home-grown timber and the 

 creation of a trade — a profitable trade — in the manufacture of 

 home-grown timber. Now let me say in passing that I hope 



