NOTES AND QUERIES. 8l 



aged 35-40 years, and the best period is at the end of 

 winter, immediately before growth begins. This means that 

 bleeding occurs nearly at once and soon ceases. Though 

 pruning with the help of a ladder is more costly than when 

 mechanical contrivances are used from the ground, he considers 

 it preferable as giving better results. In the spruce pruning 

 up to a height of 10-12 metres (approximately 11-13 yds.) is 

 sufficient. 



Incidental Costs of Forestry. 



Col. E. D. Malcolm, C.B., of Poltalloch, sends the following 

 note in regard to these : — 



" Soon after I began to think about forestry from a financial 

 point of view, I recognised that with regard to my own estate, 

 and therefore possibly with regard to many others, that the 

 accounts of forestry were not kept separate from the other 

 accounts of the estate, which I held to be a mistake. Other 

 things have intervened since then, the war, etc., and it was not 

 till recently that I got a true account of the incidental expenses 

 of forestry. That is to say, not the pay of the labourers on the 

 work but of the incidental outlays, such as rates, taxes, horses, 

 axes, saws, horse-shoeing, etc., etc. I have recently got these 

 figures, which I call incidental accounts, and I find that on my 

 property they come to ;^65o for the year. These expenses, 

 which I believe have never been considered separately, cannot 

 be repaid to the estate until the crop is cut, and they are not 

 incidental to the wild woods of foreign lands from which we are 

 supplied. So it is evident that our native woods are placed at 

 a most serious disadvantage against the wild woods of foreign 

 lands. 



" I suggest that to remedy this a tax should be levied on 

 imported woods and distributed, more or less, pro rata amongst 

 those at home who are paying taxes upon the woods they grow. 



" I understand that at the present moment there is rather a 

 notion that landowners should drop the idea of growing timber 

 and go in for pit-wood only. I humbly suggest that in forty 

 or fifty years' time that will be found a grievous mistake. Real 

 timber will always be wanted for building houses, if for nothing 

 else." 



VOL. XXXV. PART I. F 



