Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1920. 



277 



" 'i '■' '• ' IV.'. ■' '"■* ■ 



A farm tree nursery, by which abundance of trees can be produced cheaply. 



Some Big Timber of Antiquity 



By Roland G. Kent, University of Pe)uisylvania 



Many advertisements make a fea- 

 ture of the unusual size of the timbers 

 which the firs may supply, or even 

 picture the larijc size of the trees, 

 standing or felled, from which they 

 may satisfy the most extraordinary 

 demands. In view of this, it may not 

 be without interest to note what the 

 ancient Romans had in the way of 

 enormous logs. 



In the year 301 A.D.. the Emperor 

 Diocletian issued an edict fixing ma.x- 

 imum prices at which articles of trade 

 might be sold ; for then, as now, a 

 period of wars and inflation of the 

 currency had led to an appalling rise 

 in prices ; and the charge was made, 

 even as it is today, that profiteers 

 were taking undue advantage of the 

 situation. Be that as it may, parts of 

 copies of this edict, engraved on stone, 



have been found in some two score 

 places in Greece. Asia Minor, and 

 Egypt — the section of the Roman Em- 

 pire which was under the special 

 charge of Diocletian, and which alone, 

 apparently, was subject to the price 

 regulation. In the extant jiortions of 

 the edict, over one thousand items of 

 trade are listed, with their prices ; 

 wages also were regulated, not merely 

 for skilled and unskilled labor, but for 

 the learned professons. such as those 

 of the law and of teaching. 



Now to come to the jx^int : In the 

 twelfth schedule, which deals with 

 building timbers, we find the follow- 

 ing regulations, which w c give here 

 not merely translated into English, 

 but with the units of weight and value 

 cxjiressed in the usual L'nited States 

 units : 



