NOTES ON HOME TIMBER-TRADE IN EAST OF SCOTLAND. 67 
who found employment in the light-wheel trade in this part of 
the country ten to fifteen years ago, it may be safely said that 
not more than one is employed now. The introduction of 
the rubber tyre has also had its effect on the light-wheel trade, 
as it has tended to increase the life-time of the wheel, and owing 
to this and the more extensive use of American-made wheels, the 
demand for home-grown timber for light wheels has fallen much 
below what it was some years ago. Formerly the demand for 
elm of a size suitable for carriage-wheel naves was a considerable 
one, and timber was difficult to procure; but owing to the shrink- 
age in the demand for this size of timber, due chiefly to American 
competition, it is now not at all an easy matter to find a market for 
it at remunerative prices. Elm of sufficiently large size for naves 
and felloes for the heavier kinds of wheels is, however, still in 
good demand, this being a branch of the wheel-trade into which 
American competition has not as yet made a very serious inroad. 
Oak from 7 to g inches in diameter was formerly much in 
demand for carriage-wheel spokes, but this now finds its chief 
outlet for colliery and contractors’ purposes at comparatively 
low prices. <A large quantity of oak from g to 12 inches in 
diameter is used for spokes for cart and other heavy wheels, and 
for arms for telegraph and telephone poles, and there is at 
present some prospect of a good demand for this class of timber 
for motor-wheel spokes; but for such purposes as these the timber 
must be clean- grown and of very good quality. The larger 
sizes of oak timber are much used in waggon-building, but 
here also a new set of conditions has come into existence which 
has enabled American competitors to obtain a lodgment. 
The ordinary railway-waggon is now constructed to carry 
about double the load it formerly carried, and this has involved 
the use of longer and heavier timbers for the framework, which 
are difficult to procure of home growth; hence American oak, 
which can be easily obtained of sufficient length and weight, 
and at a comparatively low price, has taken the place of the 
home-grown article to a large extent. As regards strength and 
durability, however, the timber of American oak! compares very 
unfavourably with that of the British species. 
For many years the boat-building industry afforded a large outlet 
for the rougher classes of oak and elm, but the advent of the steel- 
built trawler and drifter has seriously affected this trade; and unless 
1 Quercus alba. 
