30S 



CHAPTER IV. 



WOOD TllANSPORT BY LAND. 



Section I. — General Account of the Transport of Wood. 



The largest forest areas are generally found in tliinly-populatetl 

 remote districts, and the forest-owner must, therefore, in such 

 cases, expect only a limited demand for the produce of his forests 

 unless ho can improve the means of communication between 

 them and distant markets. The forest-owner often under- 

 takes the transport of his own wood, sometimes directly to the 

 timber-market, or to a place where existing means of communica- 

 tion are good enough for no further trouble on his part in this 

 respect to be necessary. If, however, the transport of the timber 

 is undertaken by agency independent of the forest-owner, the 

 latter should endeavour to improve the means of communication 

 between his forests and the markets, so that wood may be 

 conveyed as cheaply as possible. 



The great improvement during the present century in com- 

 munications, and especially by means of railroads, tends more 

 and more to reduce the cost of carriage, which is a vital question 

 in forestry. It is therefore necessary to connect the forests with 

 the general lines of land and water communication, in order to 

 get full value for forest produce, and especially for the better 

 classes of timber. Although the forest-owner has to face greater 

 difficulties in this respect than any other large producer, yet 

 nowhere has greater energy been recently shown than in im})rov- 

 ing forest communications. 



Formerly, owing to the very defective roads available, owners 

 of largo forests had to depend chiefly on themselves for bringing 

 their timber to remote markets, which was chiefly efl"ected by 

 water-transport. Of recent years, matters have altered in this 

 respect, the forests have come more and more into contact with 



