FORESTRY 41 
Sweden, 292,850 cubic ft.; Latvia, 91,100 cubic ft.; Russia, 1,188,150 
cubic ft. ; Germany, 89,828 cubic ft. ; France, 3,550 cubic ft. ; America, 
24,250 cubic ft. ; Canada, 2,976 cubic ft.; Burma, 250 cubic ft. This 
makes a total of 2,358,654 cubic ft. 
The Customs’ figures for sea-borne imports during 1933, however, 
do not necessarily indicate the actual consumption of timber during that 
period. ‘There was a large carry forward of stocks from 1932, and a 
certain quantity of foreign timber also arrives by road and rail, and 
although no statistics are available, home-grown timber still bulks largely 
in the annual consumption. The quantity required for the building 
trades, principally during the year 1933, amounted to 78,000 loads or 
about 4,000,000 cubic ft. 
The city is well supplied with sawmills. These mills are equipped 
with up-to-date wood-working machinery, and are kept fully employed 
in the rehandling, resawing and dressing of this timber for distribution 
mainly to the building trades in the city and over the whole of the North 
of Scotland, including Orkney and Shetland. 
For the box-making industry, Aberdeen imported during 1933, 
5,000 fathoms or about 1,100,000 cubic ft. of round timber. The greater 
part of this timber is used in the manufacture of all kinds of fish boxes, 
packing cases, for home and export trade ; herring barrels, etc., in the 
many excellently equipped factories. These manufactures are well 
known over the whole of Britain. Forty to fifty years ago, 100,000 
fish boxes were used annually ; by 1924 the number had increased to 
4,000,000. At the present day 12 cubic ft. of wood is required per ton 
of fish boxed. 
It is not possible to say how much home timber is used for this purpose, 
but one firm alone in the box-making trade requires 300,000 cubic ft. 
of round and sawn home timber per annum. It is confidently believed 
that better organisation of marketing facilities would lead to a larger 
consumption of home timber. 
It is interesting to examine the sources of the sea-borne imports which 
make up the Customs’ figures. In the total given above the bulk of the 
importation was red wood and white wood (pine and spruce), and it 
will be seen that the bulk of it came from Russia; birch and maple came 
from Canada; hardwoods from Germany ; poles from Sweden ; _laths 
from Norway ; chestnut from France ; firewood from Sweden ; flooring 
and planed goods from Norway and Sweden; red wood mainly from 
Russia and Finland ; teak from Burma ; staves from Norway and Sweden ; 
deals, battens and boards from America, but the bulk from Europe. 
In the same period in 1933 most other ports in Great Britain exceeded 
the figures for 1932 in timber importations except Aberdeen. This 
was due largely to the box and barrel trade being depressed. In the 
autumn of 1933 Aberdeen box-makers, through a representative of the 
box-making firms who visited Newfoundland, were able to fix up contracts 
on what were regarded as favourable terms, for about 5,000 fathoms of 
timber. This action is of importance for several sound reasons, not the 
least among which is that Canada, invoking the Ottawa agreement, has 
been pressing this country to put an embargo on Russian timber. ‘The 
