170 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



the beech through its dense shade, whilst at the same- 

 time it forms knotty timber of inferior quality to that pro- 

 duced by trees growing in close canopy. 



Oak is the principal subordinate species to be considered 

 in admixture with beech, for though it has lost that former 

 importance in regard to shipbuilding, which led to large 

 plantations being made in the state forests of southern 

 England the New Forest, the Forest of Dean, Alice Holt, 

 Bere and Parkhurst, for the future supply of timber for the 

 Royal Navy, and though its use has been to a great extent 

 superseded owing to the development of steam transport and 

 the present usual construction of iron hulls, in which the 

 use of teak timber ( Tectona grandis} from Burma, an oily 

 wood preservative of steel and iron bolts, c., has undeniable 

 advantages over oak, the tannic acid of which corrodes iron in 

 place of preserving it like teak, yet oak still remains the most 

 highly prized and best paid home-grown timber for many 

 varieties of technical purposes, and is likely to remain so as 

 long as costs of transport prohibit the many fine timbers of 

 the tropical forests of our Indian Empire being laid down in 

 the English market at remunerative rates. This wealth of 

 timber obtainable from the Greater Britain beyond the seas 

 is another argument, if any such were required, why 

 forests in Britain should not be formed unless they can show 

 sound financial prospects of moderate remunerativeness. 

 Are not the streets of London being paved with timber from 

 Australia ? Is not almost the only timber used in building the 

 " wooden walls " of England imported from India ? Burma 

 alone yields annually over 200,000 tons of teak timber in the 

 log, and whenever necessary it might yield more than 

 4,000,000 tons annually of other kinds of timber, suitable 

 for ordinary use in the climate of Britain, for which there is 

 at present practically so little demand that its extraction is 

 not remunerative. Until, however, costs of transport become 



