1885.] DEBATE ON SIR JOHN LUBBOCK'S MOTION. 100 



well on land that was not good for agricultural purposes. He 

 believed that this Committee would do a great deal of good, and he 

 should be glad if one of the results of the inquiry was to teach 

 young men the art of cultivating timber. As it was, there was 

 considerable difficulty in getting men to manage woods properly. 

 (Hear, hear.) 



Dr. Farquharson expressed his satisfaction with the statement 

 which the Prime Minister had just made in agreeing to the appoint- 

 ment of a Select Committee. He came from a part of the country 

 where a great deal of planting was going on, as the Prime IMinister 

 well knew. Although those planting operations were conducted 

 liberally, and largely, and well, he was afraid that, as had been 

 observed, there was a little too much of the haphazard about it. 

 If they knew a little more about planting, they would be able to do 

 it better and on a more remunerative scale. They heard a great 

 deal about increasing the agricultural outcome of the soil, but very 

 little of the increased value of land that might result from a better 

 system of planting and growing trees. (Hear, hear.) A great deal 

 of land was now used for agriculture which was not fitted for it, 

 whereas if they came to the conclusion that it was best in every 

 case for waste land to be planted, we should obtain excellent crops 

 of trees, and, he thought, confer great benefits on the country with 

 respect to the climate and in many other ways. It was very 

 discreditable to this country that it should be obliged to send its 

 young men to France, Italy, or Germany to learn a subject which 

 might, with proper material, be so well taught at home. He was 

 sure that they had in Scotland a sufficient number of excellently- 

 managed woods to provide opportunities for teaching young men 

 how planting could best be carried on. He would allude specially 

 to those admirable plantations of Lord Seafield, which were so 

 capably superintended by the member for Portsmouth Qslw T. C. 

 Bruce). (Hear, hear.) At the present moment he (Dr. Farquharson) 

 had a young forester who was anxious to receive scientific instruc- 

 tion, but he did not know how it could be got unless at great 

 expense, if he were to be sent abroad. He hoped in future years 

 they would be able to get such instruction as this at home. He 

 had been very glad indeed to hear of the appointment of this Com- 

 mittee, and he was quite sure that from its deliberations great 

 good would ensue. (Cheers.) 



Mr. Dawson thought the question might serviceably be brought 

 before the Committee on Irish Industries, as there was no part of 

 the United Kingdom where improved methods of forestry would be 

 of more advantage than in Ireland, The hon. member for Dublin, 

 who had made himself remarkable by devotion to this question, had 



