THE PINE. 407 



or matured timber, a change, we believe, that rarely com- 

 mences, at least in lower and richer grounds, before it 

 has attained thirty or forty years' growth. 



The red wood timber of the Scottish forests, similar, 

 in every respect, to the best Baltic Pine, is the produce 

 of trees that have numbered from one to two or more 

 centuries ; thus, the trees in the forest of Rothiemurchus 

 were found by Mr. Grigor to average from one hundred 

 and twenty to one hundred and twenty-five years, some 

 in that of Abernethy from two hundred to two hundred 

 and forty-two years. In Norway it is not considered 

 full grown timber till it has reached from one hundred 

 and thirty to two hundred years ; and in Silesia, we are 

 informed by a resident proprietor, that the forests are 

 each divided into one hundred ecmal divisions, one of 

 which is cut over every year, by which arrangement an 

 annual fall of timber is secured of one hundred years" 1 

 growth, under which age it is not considered as having 

 reached maturity or to be fit for the market. It seems, 

 then, rather preposterous, that any one should expect 

 that plantation fir-timber, cut down when, perhaps, not 

 more than thirty years old, and consisting entirely of 

 sap wood, should, without any preparation, be adapted 

 to all those purposes which require the best full-grown 

 and matured timber, and yet such seems very generally 

 to have been the case, and to the disappointment at not 

 finding those expectations realized may be attributed a 

 large portion of that prejudice and dislike so generally 

 entertained towards this tree. Inferior, however, as the 

 sap wood may be in many respects, when compared with 

 Pine timber in its red or matured state, Ave deny that 

 it is of so worthless a nature as many have described it ; 

 if properly prepared and treated, that is, sawn up im- 

 mediately upon being cut and carefully dried, it is not 



