26 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
part of the management will be followed by the results which 
attend such faults in the commercial world. 
Let us therefore, very briefly, take each of these factors in 
turn, and see what possibilities of improvement there may be in 
the future. 
1. Cost OF PRODUCTION. 
It seems probable that we shall have to face a somewhat 
increased rate of wages in rural districts in the near future. 
Where cleared areas are being replanted, as a rule there is neither 
fencing nor draining to be done, and the labour-bill is only for the 
actual planting of the trees. |. When much labour is necessary in 
draining or reclaiming, any addition to the rate of wages may 
become serious. However, the fact that such work can be done 
during winter, when other work is slackest, will usually secure a 
sufficient number of men at reasonable wages. The chief way 
in which we may expect to reduce the cost of production is in 
more methodical expenditure, that is to say, in avoiding the 
expense of all unproductive work; and we must look to an im- 
proved knowledge of forestry, in its widest sense, to aid us in this. 
Theoretically, every item of expenditure should yield its share of 
profit ; but we all know of numbers of cases in which money has 
been freely expended on work never likely to prove profitable. 
It is this ‘““knowledge before the event” which we must hope 
to see more general. 
The cost of plants of the commoner kinds of forest trees may 
be counted on as remaining much on the average of the last ten 
years, but there can be no doubt whatever that the prices of what 
are called “ the rarer conifers” will, within the next few years, be 
reduced to about the price of larch. The large nursery-firms 
on the Continent have recognised that such kinds as Pseudotsuga 
Douglasii, Picea sitchensis, Tsuga Mertensiana, Thuya gigantea, and 
Pinus Strobus are trees which are to be planted by the thousands 
and by the tens of thousands; and they are at present offering 
them at prices not greatly in excess of quotations for larch. 
Given a sufficient demand, our home nurserymen will have no 
difficulty in also supplying any of the > at prices which will 
admit of planting them on a large scale. 
The saving that can be effected by planting large areas is not 
generally appreciated. In the fencing this is very marked ; 
because, 
