VALUE OF HOME-GROWN TIMBER 59 



not only of the whole of the trade, but also the 

 assistance which the Timber Department would 

 be able to render to the trade by means of our 

 Canadian Forestry Corps, the New England Forestry 

 Corps, and also those Americans who came over 

 and brought with them their units, their complete 

 units of sawmill machinery, with the' horses and 

 other paraphernalia down to the last button, which 

 they had provided at their own cost, and who were 

 now working in the North of Scotland. In addition, 

 there were our own efforts at the mills which we 

 had working in various parts of the country, but it 

 was going to take us all our time to get the necessary 

 timber to enable us to meet the demand. 



" The imports of timber showed there had been 

 an immense saving of tonnage. We had been 

 able to carry on during 1917 with much less than was 

 brought to this country in 1913. That was due to 

 the fact that at last we were beginning to ';find out 

 that our own island-grown timber, the full value of 

 which was never realised prior to the war, was 

 now giving us that assistance without which we 

 should have to draw very largely upon our available 

 tonnage, which was wanted for other purposes which 

 must of necessity claim priority over timber. 

 Thanks to the timber in this country — which had 

 been planted in many cases perhaps from sporting 

 instincts, also to improve the amenities of the 

 place, but very largely without a shadow or idea 

 as to the commercial side of the story— we were 

 enabled to carry on and so save the tonnage which 

 was wanted for something else. 



" All this demand for home-grown timber had 

 brought about keen competition, and that keen 

 competition had resulted in big prices being asked 

 for standing timber. The woods had changed 



