2 28 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Scotland, is in an unsatisfactory state, and might be much 

 improved. This is partly due to the mixed nature of the 

 crop in most plantations of broad-leaved trees and the high 

 percentage of inferior timber. 



The recent rise in the price of foreign timber has been not 

 less than 25 per cent., but unfortunately, with the exception 

 of Scots pine, which has risen 5 per cent, to 10 per cent., there 

 has been no corresponding rise in the prices of home timber, 

 which remain practically unaltered. 



The following seem to be- the chief causes of this : — 



1. Most architects expressly prohibit the use of home timber 



in their specifications. 



2. The foreign supply is large and fairly regular. 



3. The methodical system of conducting the trade in foreign 



timber. 



It would be idle to pretend that this unsatisfactory state of 

 affairs is not due to some extent to the superiority of foreign 

 timber over the home product. Foreign timber is either 

 produced in the virgin forest, where tree stems are often of 

 great length and perfect cleanness, or in forests which have 

 been under scientific management for generations ; the immense 

 size of these forests makes economic management easier and 

 renders comparison with British woodlands impossible. Foreign 

 timber also enjoys State protection, so that forestry is profitable 

 and therefore commands capital and intelligence as a commercial 

 concern. It should also be noted that wood pulping, which 

 provides an outlet for the young and otherwise valueless 

 thinnings of such timber as spruce, often contributes to the 

 profitable management of the crop, as does the steady demand 

 for firewood at good prices. 



It may, however, be observed that of recent years the quality 

 of foreign timber has not improved ; many of the finest sources 

 of supply have been depleted and others equally good have 

 not been brought in to replace them ; as a consequence many 

 grades of timber which are now classed as ists and 2nds are 

 only equal in quality to those classed as 2nds and 3rds 

 ten years ago. This fact taken in conjunction with the general 

 rise in price of foreign timber, intensified at present by the 

 very large increase in freights, should now make it possible for 

 home-grown timber to compete on more equal terms with the 

 foreign importations. 



