1 82 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 CONVERSION OF TIMBER ON ESTATES. 



Sawn Timber. — Transport of Timber. 



SECTION I. — SAWN TIMBER. 



A SUGGESTIVE feature in one branch of the timber trade in 

 Germany, that travellers notice, is that on the railway and canal 

 wharves, etc., the timber for transport anywhere is generally 

 in the sawn state, in the shape of boards, battens and other 

 scantlings, in net bulk, so to speak ; whereas in this country it 

 is almost always in the round or rough state as it is -felled in the 

 wood, representing an enormously greater expense in haulage 

 as well as loss in other ways. And this partly converted 

 timber from the German forests represents only a portion of 

 the produce, much of it being worked up in factories in or 

 near the forests, all the small wood and waste being left behind 

 for firewood and other purposes. On the Continent, however, 

 the supply, is regular, and employment for saw-mills, driven by 

 steam or water, is constant. In Britain that is not the case, 

 even on the largest estates, and saw-mills, except in a small 

 way for estate purposes,, are costly to erect and maintain of a 

 capacity to deal with all sizes of timber, otherwise it would 

 certainly pay the owners of timber, when felled in consider- 

 able quantities, to partly convert their timber at home before 

 offering it to purchasers. The portable saw-mill offers 

 some facilities in that respect, whether hired or, kept on the 

 estate, but travelling saw-mills are not as yet common. The 

 extensive windfalls of recent times in Scotland has, to some 

 extent, brought them into use, but in England they are not 

 readily available. With a saw-mill near to the timber, battens, 

 boards «for flooring and other purposes, scantlings of various 

 kinds, railway materials, fencing rails and posts, pit-props, 

 telegraph poles, etc., all of which are now either imported or 

 sawn up at local saw-mills, could be easily manufactured and 

 as readily sold. Railways and waggon builders alone provide 

 a very ready market for large quantities of our best timber. For 

 one oak waggon sole, free from flaws, about eighteen feet 



