ECONOMIC VALUE OF FOREST FLOEA 201 



soils like gravels and sands. The pines, silver fir, Douglas 

 fir, beech, and Spanish chestnut, may all be grown success- 

 fully on soils too poor to produce good oak and ash. In 

 Great Britain these species must be planted at a moderate 

 elevation to yield an adequate quantity of timber, but on 

 the Continent they can be grown between 1000 and 8000 

 feet, Scots pine and chestnut north of the 52nd degree of 

 latitude possibly excepted. Soils suited to their require- 

 ments in Britain are, as a result of this limitation, more 

 or less mixed up with agricultural lands, and large areas 

 cannot al\va3^s be obtained for their cultivation. 



5. High quality or specijic value of timber. 



Some of the most valued qualities of man}' timbers, and 

 those generally recognised, are straightness of growth 

 and freedom from knots. These qualities are largely de- 

 pendent upon proper methods of cultivation, and do not 

 necessarily constitute specific characters. The latter, more 

 or less, are usually peculiar to the species and inherited 

 rather than acquired. The qualities most highly prized 

 by manufacturers and users of European timber are 

 strength, durability, and elasticity. Grain or figure, 

 colour, power of taking a polish, and other ornamental 

 qualities are not now valued so highly in British timbers, 

 owing to the number of foreign fancy woods imported 

 from many quarters of the globe, but a timber which is 

 brittle, falls easily into decay when exposed to weather, 

 or lacks sufficient strength and durability to be employed 

 in permanent work, is seldom thought highly of. To the 

 forester or landowner, therefore, the value of high quality 

 timbers must be largely determined by rate of growth. 

 However valuable a species may be per cubic foot, the 

 number of such feet produced per acre per annum will 

 determine whether it can be termed a profitable species or 

 not. Oak, locust tree, yew, etc., are all valuable timbers for 

 certain purposes, but their rate of growth per acre is too slow 



