DECLINING WOODLAND INDUSTRIES. 



" pimp," or fagot of the present day, has to be delivered 

 in the London market at 2s. 6d. per hundred, the reasons 

 for a dying-out industry will not be hard to seek, and 

 I might add that this was the Government contract 

 price not so long ago. With the decline of the small 

 fagot or " pimp " came the speedy reduction in price of 

 the large or oven fagot, from which the smaller were 

 made. Even in our own day these latter have brought 

 from 18s. to 20s. per hundred, but at present they are 

 in many places a drug on the market. Paupsrs and 

 casuals to our unions are now compelled to split into 

 firewood a certain quantity of useless batten ends, the 

 refuse of our timber yards, each day, so that the value 

 of our woodland branches as converted into bundles for 

 fire-lighting is being reduced in every way. 



These are only a few of the man}- industries of our 

 woodlands which have become crippled, or quite lost sight 

 of, of late years from one or several causes, the majority 

 of which are quite beyond our control, but it still behoves 

 us to meet, with a bold front, the changes which time 

 have brought about, whether in the way of preferential 

 carriage rates, foreign importations, or cheaper Continental 

 labour. 



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