144 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



flooring, as linings, sleepers, boxwood, and a hundred other 

 forms. The result will be a rich harvest to the grower, and 

 much saving of weight in carriage, and much saving of waste. 

 This is really what happens with Scotch mills in our com- 

 paratively small and young woods now. The home miller is 

 able to produce his thinly-cut boxwood, for instance, at a well- 

 equipped mill right in or beside the woods, and compete success- 

 fully, in Scots fir, with the best boxwood shipments of Norway 

 and Sweden. It is a fact that boxwood for many hundreds of 

 thousands of boxes is sent every year from mills in the North 

 of Scotland to southern markets, and it not only holds its own 

 against foreign shippers, but is vastly preferable, both as 

 regards quality and workmanship. 



The strain which Scots fir will bear, is so much greater 

 than that of Norway spruce, that a thickness of ^ in. in Scots 

 fir is accepted in many cases where ~ in. is demanded for white 

 pine, and it is a well-known fact, that Scots fir does not split in 

 the nailing, a common fault with white pine. The foreigner gets 

 his raw material for boxwood production at an extremely low 

 price, usually as a by-product, but he is unable to cut so 

 accurately as our up-to-date mills do, for he is hampered by the 

 irregular cutting of his raw material, of ends of deals or battens, 

 and the numerous cracks, twists and blemishes which have led 

 to their production. One finds also that cutting boxwood, etc., 

 with the thinnest swedge saws, at a high rate of speed, and from 

 the green tree, we, in Scotland, produce a more regular and 

 smooth finish than the foreigner can do, or than we ourselves can 

 do from foreign material. 



Pulpwood has for many years been imported in very large 

 quantities into this country, and in this city, as you may know, 

 roughly speaking, 20,000 tons are used annually for boxmaking 

 purposes alone, which is altogether a new departure, but it is of 

 a soft fibrous nature, and is better adapted for paper-making 

 purposes. To show the vast forests consumed, and the immense 

 labour employed in this industry for the manufacture of paper, 

 for one newspaper company alone, I purpose to show you a 

 cinematograph film of the great Harmsworth undertaking in 

 Newfoundland. This is only another instance, however, in 

 which I think our home spruce, if properly grown, would com- 

 pare favourably with the imported article. 



Although I prefer to leave it to forestry experts to determine 



