344 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and from the poles supplied under the trial orders, it would 
appear that, even with the shorter lengths, much difficulty 
would be experienced in getting shapely poles.” 
The above opinion will not cause surprise to those acquainted 
with our past sylvicultural errors, and with the still existing want 
of system in our timber-growing business. Crops of “shapely 
poles” which could be clear-felled, and the bulk of which could 
be handed over to the Post Office, were for the most part non- 
existent ; and no doubt woods were searched through to find here 
and there, among the already too scanty stock, a pole that might 
comply with the Post Office specification. It is also more than 
probable that most of the poles so found and cut, being the 
most “shapely” of the crop, were precisely those the retention 
of which sylvicultural considerations called for. But even so, 
the quality of the bulk of these poles was far below standard, 
and the expense of cutting and collecting them from a large 
area must have been excessive; while the practice of pecking 
at a crop and removing from time to time the finest poles as they 
become saleable cannot be too strongly condemned, resulting as 
it does in a ragged, worthless crop of trees, for which, during 
the whole course of their lives, no purchaser has been found. 
Such a “final” crop cumbers the ground, as it yields no 
adequate “increment” per acre, and what it does yield is of 
inferior quality. 
As the Post Office purchase annually a considerable quantity 
of telegraph poles, it is a matter of importance to proprietors and 
wood-merchants that we should secure this market for our produce ; 
and there is absolutely no reason why this should not be done 
if proprietors would grow Scots pine trees with tall, straight and 
clean stems, underplanting them with shade-bearers at a suitable 
stage of their growth. If crops were thus grown, and if the 
woods were organised so as to provide a steady annual yield 
of poles of constant size and quality, the market would be 
captured at once. In the absence of such organisation, we 
cannot be surprised that, as Mr Robert says, neither growers 
nor merchants of home-grown timber are prepared to tender for 
the Post Office yearly contracts. They have no certain knowledge 
as to what they can put upon the market from year to year. 
If further information on this subject, or in regard to the 
requirements of the Post Office in oak timber, be desired, 
reference may be made to pp. 135, 136, and to Appendix XVII., 
