8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



miles upon miles to the saw-mill, and thus handicapping both 

 producer and consumer, damaging standing timber, and cutting 

 up roads that have afterwards to be repaired. This conversion 

 in the wood is sometimes attempted, but our forestry practice 

 and method of conducting sales is much against the plan. The 

 foreign timber that comes to this country is all sized and sorted, 

 travels in much less bulk, and can be handled far more con- 

 veniently than home-grown timber, which after hauling to the 

 railway wharf may have to lie for weeks before the travelling 

 crane can be sent to hoist it on to waggons, or the waggons 

 themselves can be got — always expensive work. Any extensive 

 afforestation scheme would have to contemplate reform in this 

 direction in order to keep down expenses, which in British 

 woods are greater than they might be, and, coupled with the 

 ever-increasing burdens on land, exceed greatly, I believe, those 

 of other countries. It is from greater economy of management, 

 as much as from other sources, that the margin of profit must 

 be sought in the future. 



As to the timber-producing power of poor or waste soils 

 unsuitable for agriculture a good deal of misconception exists. 

 One may often judge pretty safely from the vegetation and trees 

 in any neighbourhood whether the soil is capable of producing 

 timber, but it is not safe to conclude from a poor surface crop 

 that it is unfit for that purpose. Trees, and especially the 

 broad-leaved species, like the Oak, Beech, and Chestnut for 

 example, respond to good soil and good root-culture as farm 

 crops do, but not to the same extent as the latter. If timber- 

 trees were grown for their crop of seed — the Oak for its acorns, 

 and the Beech for its mast, and so on — it might be different, as it 

 is into the seed or fruit that the principal constituents go in 

 greatest proportion ; but it is the ivood the timber-grower requires, 

 and the principal mineral substances taken from the soil to assist 

 in building up the wood of a tree are very much less in quantity 

 than is required by farm crops. The atmosphere supplies the 

 greatest portion of the food of a timber- tree, hence the reason 

 why very large trees are often found growing in very poor soils, 

 which the casual observer would consider unfit for any crop. 

 When the leaves of trees are analysed together with the wood, 

 the constituents are found to approximate more nearly in quantity 

 to those found in farm crops, but even then the nourishing 



