230 CONIFEROUS TREES 



pit-props, palings, builders' laths, staves, and 

 fencing. When planked out of large trees the 

 timber is used for house joinery, railway sleepers, 

 boarding under slates, outside buildings of a 

 temporary kind, headings for barrels, boxes, and 

 packing-cases. For war purposes Scotch Pine 

 timber has been much in request by the Govern- 

 ment for the making of packing-cases, with the 

 result that the price has risen considerably. For 

 first-quality timber the price is now about is. 2d. 

 per cubic foot, but plenty may be had at from 

 8d. to IS. of smaller size and inferior quality. 



The Weymouth Pine, though curiously erratic 

 in the quality of timber produced in this country, 

 is in certain situations a most useful, fast-growing 

 tree ; and where conditions are favourable, should 

 enter into the composition of our woods and planta- 

 tions. At Gwydyr Castle, in Wales, the Wey- 

 mouth has done excellently on loose, shaly rock ; 

 and on an elevated plateau near the old chapel, 

 trees containing upwards of 200 feet of timber, 

 with straight, clean boles, some of which rise to 

 90 feet in height, may be seen. Five of these 

 trees which we measured lately, contained fully 

 1200 feet of timber and girthed from 9 to 10 feet 

 at a yard up the stem. On warm, gravelly soils 

 at Penrhyn Castle, also in Wales, many of the 

 Weymouths, which averaged 55 feet in height, 

 were '' pumped " or rotten at the core, thus show- 

 ing that the tree is not adapted for such soils. In 

 Surrey the Weymouth has done remarkably well, 

 a plantation of seventy years' growth having 

 yielded a profit of over £69 per acre. 



The timber is light, clean, and easily worked. 



