94 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for writing a book on forest products are high, and the material 

 he presents is of enhanced value since much of it was collected 

 by the author during a ten years' investigation and inspection 

 of operations in different parts of America. 



The book treats not of lumbering in America, but of the 

 major products of trees mainly obtained outside that industry. 

 It deals with materials such as wood-pulp, veneers, slack and 

 tight cooperage, naval stores, wood distillation, box timbers, 

 cross-ties, poles, mine timbers, excelsior, maple syrup, rubber, 

 dyewoods, and cork. Elaborate detail is not gone into on any 

 one of these, and the book is not one that would provide for 

 the wants of the worker in the more highly specialised trades 

 such as paper-making. It is intended rather to be a good book of 

 reference to which the forestry student may turn. The difficulties 

 that had to be overcome by the author in his efforts to compress 

 and curtail the material available can readily be imagined, and 

 we must admit that he has succeeded remarkably well in his 

 task. He has included enough detail to make the main require- 

 ments of each particular industry clear to the reader, without 

 going to the excess that would either obscure the information 

 given or demand still further explanation. 



The book is written mainly with American conditions in 

 mind, and while many of the hardier trees mentioned grow 

 in this country they are not all to be found in any quantity. 

 Nor have we the large blocks of forest of any species that are 

 demanded for the most successful commercial undertaking of 

 many operations mentioned. One can, however, grasp the 

 methods given, and by adapting them to our conditions it is 

 possible that some materials now wasted or put to indifferent 

 uses might become more profitable subjects. 



The author gives particulars of the operators employed in the 

 various undertakings, and the outturn from different types of 

 plant. This is a useful part of the book, and from it might be 

 calculated the approximate costs and returns under conditions 

 prevailing at any time and place where wages and prices of 

 materials are known. We are of the opinion that the book 

 would have lost nothing if wage rates and prices generally had 

 been left out of consideration. 



While the author has drawn largely on his own investigations, 

 he has not been without the help of prominent operators in 

 the different trades, and the up-to-date literature has been kept 



