JANUAKY . 23 



industry on a business footing would in time set up a 

 regular trade in home timber. It is no exaggeration to 

 say that no such regular trade exists at the present time. 

 Merchants, although willing to offer for home timber 

 when it is offered them, rely for the bulk of their supplies 

 from abroad — from countries where they can be perfectly 

 sure of getting the exact quantity and quality that they 

 want. At home there is no approach to regularity or 

 certainty of supply, still less to uniformity in quantity. 

 Trees subjected to excessive thinning — to arboricultural 

 instead of forestal treatment — throw out innumerable 

 branches: each branch means a knot in the wood, and 

 the timber produced must be coarse and irregular. This 

 must continue to be so unless and until a considerable 

 area in the United Kingdom is under regular rotation 

 of timber crop. To quote Mr. Nisbet once more : ' Avail- 

 able markets cannot be utilised to the best advantage if 

 the quantity of wood offered one year is large, the next 

 year small, a third year wanting altogether, and so on 

 irregularly. "First a hunger then a burst" is bad in 

 this as in all other cases.' 



Lastly, the social effect of establishing a healthy 

 industry like forestry in a thinly populated region is 

 not to be overlooked. From every quarter of the realm 

 comes the lament that the sons of the soil are flocking 

 into the great towns. Give them steady and attractive 

 employment, lodge them comfortably, pay them liberally, 

 and plenty of men will remain on the land, as is proved 

 by the fact that there is never the slightest difficulty in 

 obtaining men as gamekeepers, gardeners, stalkers, and 

 gillies in the most remote parts of the country. Where 

 a couple of shepherds now suffice for the care of sheep 



