4 BRITISH FORESTRY, PAST AND FUTURE 



even for the commonest kind of country structures. Timber 

 has been felled, and the market supplied, as much at the 

 whim or from the financial necessities of the owner, as from 

 considerations of sound forestry, with the result that much 

 timber has been left standing till it was decayed, and long 

 past the time when the increment of the woodlands could 

 furnish a reasonable return on the capital represented by the 

 growing stock. 



The market for home-grown timber has also suffered from 

 the absence of any considerable areas of State forests in this 

 country. Where they exist abroad they are found to have 

 a steadying effect on markets, as their supplies of timber 

 can be depended on to come forward with regularity. More- 

 over the State is in a superior position, as compared with 

 the individual, to feed the market with heavy timber, a 

 class of material essential to certain industries, but one 

 which is less profitable than smaller dimensions. 



Lastly, there falls to be mentioned a factor which, in its 

 broad aspects, has had more to do with retarding British 

 forestry than any, namely lack of facilities for education. 

 The Indian Forest School was started at Cooper's Hill in 

 1885, and in 1889 the University of Edinburgh inaugurated 

 the first Lectureship in Forestry which was primarily de- 

 signed to meet British conditions. More recently additional 

 centres of forestry instruction have been established, while 

 other forms of education, in its wider sense, have taken the 

 shape of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, and of organized 

 excursions to Continental countries. 



The neglect of sound silvicultural principles, brought 

 about by the causes enumerated, resulted in the production 

 of timber of inferior quality. The stems lacked height and 

 had too much taper, while the wood was open in the grain, 

 contained too much inferior spring wood, lacked durability, 

 and was full of knots. While there are exceptions to this 

 indictment notably oak, ash, and larch, to a lesser extent 

 also Scots pine there is no doubt that the low esteem in 

 which British timber has been held has been justified. But 



