THE HOME TIMBER TRADE OUTLOOK. I4I 



here are certainly equal to any continental product, and in fact 

 have excited the admiration of experts from other countries. 



I need not remind you, gentlemen, that there are millions of 

 acres lying waste, or bringing in not more than sixpence per acre 

 to the proprietors — acres that could be utilised at very little 

 expense, and turned into the finest timber-bearing land in 

 Europe. In Kincardineshire, I know of an area where I am quite 

 sure there is room for a 20,000 -acre afforestation scheme, on 

 heath ground, not worth more than sixpence per acre for sheep- 

 grazing. I am not posing as an alarmist, but we are not only 

 reaching, but have reached, a crisis which gives cause for serious 

 anxiety. Something must be done, and that quickly, as the evil 

 cannot be remedied in a year or two. If our large landed 

 proprietors could only be made to realise the actual position that 

 must inevitably arise if we take no steps to avert the calamity 

 which is bound to come, they would lay the foundations of 

 wealth, if not for themselves at anyrate for their successors. 

 Many mills are shut down owing to want of material, and in 

 several places woods are being cut that, had it not been for the 

 destruction done to them by vermin, would not have been in the 

 market for many years yet; and it is within my recollection that 

 on Strathspey alone not one half of the mills that were working 

 there fifteen years ago are there now. Several of you will, doubt- 

 less, remember the time when thirty or more floats of timber 

 could be seen at any time being piloted down the Spey for ship- 

 building and other purposes at Garmouth. The floating of 

 timber on the Dee is within my own recollection : but floating, 

 unfortunately, is now a lost art, as far as this country is 

 concerned, simply because no employment could be found 

 for the floaters owing to the timber having been all cut at 

 or near the river's banks. 



And now, gentlemen, I think it would be interesting and 

 useful for us to consider how matters would stand in Scotland 

 at this moment if, 150 years ago, or even 100 years ago, the 

 State had passed a law ordaining the preservation and re- 

 planting in a fixed rotation of the then existing woods, and 

 the gradual aff^orestation of all the available land not suitable 

 for agriculture, and yet capable of producing wood. This 

 would still have left the higher ground available for grouse 

 moors and deer forests, which bring in so great a revenue 

 now. Let us suppose that there had been a great survey, 



