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CHAPTER XIII 



TIMBERS AND HARD WOODS. 



THOUGH the extended application of iron during the last 

 twenty years, both for ship and house building, has to some 

 extent supplanted the use of timber, the increased building 

 operations all over the country have caused a continued 

 demand for the various building timbers. The attention of 

 our timber merchants and ornamental wood dealers has not 

 been so much directed to the introduction of new woods as 

 to new sources of supply of existing kinds. The pines and 

 oaks are still the woods mostly in demand for structural 

 purposes, and it is for cabinet-work that most interest is 

 shown in the application of new woods. Notwithstanding 

 all that has been done by the British possessions, as well as 

 by foreign countries, to bring their forest resources promi- 

 nently forward at the several International Exhibitions 

 since 1851, the result cannot be said to be satisfactory so 

 far as the British timber trade is concerned. 



The magnificent collections of Australian timbers that 

 have from time to time been shown, as well as those from 

 the Cape of Good Hope- -notably in the Colonial and Indian 

 Exhibition of 1886 have not resulted, as might have been 

 anticipated, in creating a demand for them in this country. 

 It may be thought that a periodical exhibition is not the 

 best means of keeping such things fresh in the minds of 

 those most interested, and to some extent this is true ; but 

 when these collections find a permanent home, always open 

 to the public, as they are at Kew, there can be no such 

 excuse. In the case of Australasian timbers, however, 

 there may be some reason why they have not yet figured as 

 regular articles of import with us, and this is the cost of. 



