628 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



labour is employed. This may not be forthcoming in the United 

 Kingdom to the extent necessary for a large scheme of afforesta- 

 tion and selected men might and would be taken from the ranks 

 of the unemployed as well as from other occupations to meet the 

 demand until a supply of skilled labour was established. This 

 would take more than five years or so in each district and then 

 whatever the degree to which direct relief had previously been 

 afforded to those out of work, future relief would be solely in 

 the expansion of the labour market. So that it seems out of 

 place to associate the present problem of the unemployed 

 directly with the question of afforestation dealing with sixty 

 years or more ; indeed to do so in practice would be to attempt 

 to carry out relief work at the expense of an undertaking which 

 in present circumstances is known not to do more than pay its 

 way. 



Other difficulties lie in the majority of the unemployed 

 having congregated in the cities, far away from land which 

 can profitably be planted, where they often have acquired habits 

 unsuiting them to rough outdoor work. 



Comparatively small then though the direct and immediate 

 effects of afforestation on labour may be, there are others, 

 however, which leave no doubt as to the ultimate benefits 

 accruing, fully justifying the greatest efforts being made for 

 their realisation. 



In the first place it has been shown to what extent the 

 demand for labour could permanently be increased ; year by 

 year this would be added to until, once the whole area say 

 6,000,000 acres were stocked, permanent employment would 

 be provided for 40,000 men. Now this labour is for the most 

 part required during the months October to March, just when 

 the demand is smallest generally, particularly for agricultural 

 labour, and the distress greatest. So that the relief afforded 

 is greatest in the season when it is most needed ; but not only 

 this, it makes possible occupations which would otherwise not 

 be so, and thus the relief extends beyond the actual labour 

 employed. Throughout the country rural depopulation is in 

 progress : the temporary labourer on the large farms is attracted 

 by the hope of higher wages to the town where, however, 

 the long roll of unemployed clearly shows the supply to exceed 

 the demand, and where on closer examination the higher wages 

 only too often prove illusory. 



