82 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



poplar, which can be grown equally well. The black willow is 

 also good for pulp, and there are other poplars. There is 

 a paper by Professor Henry, published in the Transactions, 

 on that very subject. These are things which we should 

 keep an eye upon, because if forestry is to make any 

 progress at all it must be started at any rate with fast-growing 

 timber like these poplars and fast-growing conifers. I do not 

 see why, for example, plantations of poplars should not be 

 formed with spruce as an under-plant. Spruce is one of the 

 best trees for wood-pulp, in fact the bulk of wood-pulp is 

 made from spruce. Then, of course, spruce is a very valuable 

 timber, as we all know. It forms a large amount of the timber 

 used in house-building, and other construction work. I think in 

 connection with hardwood also we are neglecting very much the 

 growth of some of them, for instance, ash. Most of the handle- 

 wood used in this country is American ash and hickory. Every 

 one knows hickory is not so good for handle-wood as ash, as 

 men do not like hickory handles. Home-grown ash is far 

 better wood. Elm is an extremely valuable wood, also plane 

 and beech, as Mr Spiers has said. If we paid more attention 

 to woods like ash and elm and two or three others — oak, too, 

 of which great quantities are imported from Continental 

 countries — we could produce an enormous quantity of timber. 

 The great drawback is that all our own timber is so roughly 

 grown." 



