190 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



everywhere will cost something to produce. A certain rise in 

 values must, as a consequence, result, with much better chances 

 of paying crops of timber being produced at home. 



What Classes of Timber will be Scarce in the Future, 



AND TO WHAT EXTENT MAY WE SaFELV AfFOREST? 



Assuming that 9,000,000 acres of plantable land are available 

 for planting, is it necessary to make this enormous addition to 

 the present forest area of the country? Our chief imports are 

 of coniferous timber, or the product (wood-pulp, etc.) of 

 coniferous timber. It is quite true that timber merchants 

 have now to pay from 30 to 35 per cent, more for, say, 

 Scandinavian red or white deal (Scots pine or spruce) than 

 they paid twenty years ago, and that they receive timber younger 

 and of poorer quality than formerly ; but, so far, they have 

 experienced no difficulty whatever in getting their supplies. 

 How long these conditions may be continued it is difficult to 

 ascertain with accuracy, but it seems quite certain that trans- 

 port expenses are getting heavier, that younger timber is being 

 cut, and that the tendency generally is for the best qualities to 

 rise in price. 



" Memel," the finest brand of red deal, which formerly used 

 to be quite plentiful, is gone for ever. The same remark will 

 apply very soon to many other of the finer brands of pine 

 timber, which have taken a century and a half or more to grow 

 All the best qualities and sizes are getting scarcer and dearer, 

 as the market for them extends more and more. 



But it is not at all likely that the export of timber from 

 Northern Europe will entirely cease. The foresting of so large 

 an area as 9,000,000 acres is evidently intended to cover the 

 total extinction of imports, unless it is anticipated that new 

 industries will arise, and that new uses for timber will be 

 found ; and this latter eventuality is not improbable. But in 

 'both Norway and Sweden energetic measures are being taken 

 to conserve the forests and to regulate the output of timber. 

 Owing to their geographical position, and the climatological 

 peculiarities resulting therefrom, neither of these countries is 

 capable of industrial development to the same extent as 

 those situated further south. For this reason the production of 

 coniferous timber will probably always constitute one of their 



