CHAPTER VII 



QUALITY OF BRITISH-GROWN CONIFEROUS 

 TIMBERS 



With the object of testing the quaUty of the 

 timber of the various species of coniferous trees 

 cultivated in this country, I have lost no oppor- 

 tunity for many years either of collecting specimens 

 or conducting experiments. This, I need hardly 

 add, has been attended with considerable diffi- 

 culties, and it has not been easy to procure home- 

 grown specimens of a suitable age and size to render 

 the experiments thoroughly trustworthy. Fortu- 

 nately for the carrying out of such experiments, 

 I have had the management of parks and wood- 

 lands where numbers of the rarer conifers had to 

 be removed in the ordinary course of thinning, 

 while the wind has, on not a few occasions, acted 

 as a kind friend in procuring specimens that would 

 not otherwise have been obtainable. 



As will be seen from the measurements given 

 throughout the following notes, probably the 

 largest and oldest specimens in this country of 

 Pinus Laricio, P. Laricio nigricans, P. ponderosa, 

 P. Pinaster, P. Strobus, Cedrus Libani, Cupressus 

 macrocarpa, C. Lawsoniana, Cunninghamia sinensis, 



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