LOSS OF VOLUME. 427 



turn of the sawmills there must be a certain proportion of 

 unsound boards and scantling. In so far, therefore, as floating 

 actually increases the difficulties and practical impediments in 

 the way of a rational treatment of wood, it is advisable, wherever 

 it is not susceptible of improvement, to limit its use, at least as 

 regards valuable timber. 



6. Injinencc of llnilirai/s on the Timber-Trade. 



It is easy, from observation of the freight of goods-trains 

 which pass through forests, to form an idea of the share that the 

 ordinary railroads of a country take in the transport of wood. By 

 the co-operation of branch-lines and road-railways the meshes 

 of the railway-net are constantly narrowing, and a great and 

 important future is being prepared for facilitating the transport 

 of wood by the use of railways, and by uniting them with main 

 forest railways and portable tramways. Plains and hilly districts 

 alone can fully profit by these benelits ; and although mountain 

 forests, as we have seen, may also participate to some extent, 

 it is chiefly long gently inclined valleys, penetrating the interior 

 of mountain-districts, where projects for the construction of 

 forest railways can at present be entertained. In general, how- 

 ever, the decisive arguments for and against the adoption of a 

 forest railway are : — whether large quantities of wood are avail- 

 able for trade along a given line of export, or the produce of a 

 forest has to be distributed in detail to satisf}- merely local 

 demands ; the total amount of the produce in question, which 

 may be temporarily augmented owing to damage by storms, 

 insects, or other causes of injury ; and sometimes the probable 

 duration of the demand for the produce. This last motive may 

 also involve serious danger to the forest, in case the existence of 

 a forest railway should lead the manager to overstep the limits 

 of true forest conservancy by overfelling. 



It is in the interests of sylviculture, especially for the repro- 

 duction of the standing-crop, to extend portable tramways as 

 much as possible, in order to remove the produce of secondary 

 fellings and standards in full-sized logs without injury to the 

 young crop, and thus supply a quick and cheap transport of 

 wood from the constantly shifting felling-areas to the nearest 



