REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. I03 



the administration of this country that a forest area capable of 

 producing first-class timber in sufficient quantities to meet the 

 requirements of the staple industries of the country should be 

 gradually formed and maintained." 



Thus Mr Forbes seems to speak with two voices. Probably 

 his aim is to show that the stock arguments on either side should 

 be received with due caution. If this be so, I cordially agree 

 with him, believing as I do that the truth lies between the two 

 extremes. I do not think that, without encroaching upon 

 agricultural land, we can grow sufficient timber at home to 

 balance completely the imports from foreign countries ; nor do 

 I believe that it would be possible to produce paying crops con- 

 sisting exclusively of pitwood or pulpwood. There is no doubt 

 that the wood material likely to be scarcest in the near future 

 is well-matured coniferous timber {e.g., Scots pine and spruce;, 

 and common hardwoods of good quality. We are already paying 

 a higher price for a very much younger and inferior class of 

 redwood than we did twenty years ago, and this state of matters 

 is likely to be accentuated very soon. For it is well to keep in 

 mind that the rate of production is extremely slow in the forests 

 of the far north, where the largest surplus stocks of mature 

 coniferous timber at present exist. That we can grow a large 

 proportion of such timber without encroaching upon agricultural 

 land there is also no doubt, but, as the author of the book points 

 out, if we are to have any success at all, the claims of the sports- 

 man must receive less consideration than hitherto. 



On the other hand, there is not the slightest sign of any 

 slackening off in the imports of small timber suitable only for 

 pitwood and pulpwood. And since large quantities of small 

 timber must of necessity be produced as thinnings in ordinary 

 course, the extensive cultivation of timber crops on short rofa- 

 tions, expressly for the production of pitwood and pulpwood, 

 would very likely have the effect of glutting the market, and 

 would, at the same time, effectually prevent the ultimate produc- 

 tion of the matured timber which the country will stand most in 

 need of. The same remarks would apply to large afforestation 

 schemes having the cultivation of pure larch crops as their 

 main object. Apart from silvicultural objections, the market 

 for larch timber appears to be much more limited than many 

 people think, and large supplies must almost certainly bring 

 down prices in the future. 



