THE society's ANNUAL MEETING. 77 



capacity of their output. It is important that all the mills 

 should be fully manned. There is no scarcity of timber, but 

 the shortage of labour made it extremely difficult to cut and 

 handle that timber; also the expense of keeping mills running 

 when only half manned added considerably to the cost of 

 production. Mr Spiers went on to say that it seemed to him 

 very necessary that the question of afforestation should be kept 

 prominently and persistently before the people of this country, as 

 they do not generally realise the enormous national assets that 

 have been lost to the country for the last hundred years. We 

 are one of the worst afforested countries in Europe, and yet 

 there are few trees of economic importance and commercial 

 value that we cannot grow. Mr Spiers further referred to Mr 

 Cadell's remarks about the black Italian poplar. He knew of 

 no tree which produces the same volume of wood in the same 

 time. It is perfectly suitable for colliery purposes, and also 

 for sleepers, for which large quantities of timber are required. 

 We are neglecting the cultivation of hardwoods generally. There 

 is nothing which Scotland lacks more than good, well-grown 

 hardwoods of every kind. A great many of the hardwood trees 

 which are put on the market are so heavily crowned and branchy 

 that they do not command good prices owing to the more costly 

 conversion involved in the case of such trees, but properly 

 .grown hardwood, of any kind, will always command a good 

 price. Austrian and Russian oak at the moment cannot be got, 

 and even before the war it was lessening in supply every year. 

 Cabinet-makers and builders feel this want very much. In refer- 

 ence to the conifers he strongly advocated the extended cultivation 

 of the common spruce as a tree of great commercial importance. 



In conclusion, Mr Spiers said there is no country which can 

 produce hardwoods like our own, but they are generally very 

 much damaged by rabbits before they get started to grow. 

 Rabbits will grow anywhere, and if you give every forester a gun, 

 you will get a grand stock of trees, but it is impossible to grow 

 rabbits and trees together. 



The Chairman. — " I think we should be very glad to hear 

 Sir William Haldane on this question of rabbits." 



Sir William Haldane. — " I should like to say first that I think 

 the proceedings this afternoon have been unusually interesting. 

 They are always interesting — sometimes they are almost lively — 

 but under your presidency they have been both interesting and 



