56 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



failure to obtain a footing on the English timber market. 

 The timber trade, like many other industries, is greatly 

 ruled by custom and architects' specifications, and the launch 

 of a new wood upon the general market is attended with 

 more difficulty than the entrance of a new pill or ointment 

 into public favour. The character of our ordinary English 

 timbers is well known, and the timber merchant who buys 

 or the tradesman who uses them knows within certain limits 

 what they will turn out, and how they will behave under 

 given conditions. With a new species all this has to be 

 found out, and the ordinary tradesman or merchant cannot 

 afford the time and risk which would attend the necessary 

 trials and experiments for establishing the reputation of a 

 particular timber. 



But the chief drawback in securing a ready sale for most 

 exotic timbers is the fact that they have hitherto been grown 

 in small quantities, and more as ornamental specimens than 

 timber trees. The few trees offered now and again for sale 

 are neither in sufficient bulk nor of sufficient quality for the 

 buyer to differentiate in the matter of price, and his usual 

 figure for all doubtful or unknown timbers is about 6d. per 

 cubic foot, which can hardly be termed a risky speculation. 

 But, although the bulk of our foreign trees cannot be con- 

 sidered of economic importance, there are several which an 

 experience of at least over half a century has proved capable 

 of being profitably utilised in forming ordinary plantations, 

 and which yield, when mature, timber of equal quality to 

 that of the average British timber tree. When we allude to 

 half a century's experience we only refer of course to North 

 American introductions, for most of the commoner European 

 species have been on trial for a much longer period, and 

 fewer differences of soil or climate exist to render their growth 

 in these Islands other, than what it would be in their own 

 native habitats. Larch, spruce, silver fir, Corsican and 

 Austrian pines, all exhibit more or less the same character- 

 istics of growth in this country as at home, although larch 

 perhaps may be considered more an exception to this rule 

 than the remainder. 



Of the numerous species of trees which are represented 

 in English woodlands, not more than a dozen can claim to be 



