Scotch Forestry. 189 



Now, by means of companies on a large scale, this difficulty 

 has been got over, and the wet jungle tropics promise to become 

 one of the richest, insteatl of as hitherto the poorest and least 

 attractive districts of the earth. 



It is either by co-operation or by companies feuing land for 

 afforestation that, it seems to me, the big question will be finally 

 inckled. But there will always be time and opportunity for every 

 proprietor who cares to work his own estates to develop his own 

 forests. 



I cannot see how- the Government — that is the British 

 (Government — could embark on an enterprise of this kind. The 

 i;enius of the British nation tends to self-help, and I very much 

 doubt if interference by well-meaning Government officials is in 

 the lea.st desirable; 



No ; if forestry, as I maintain, is a profitable industry in Scot- 

 land, relieve it of every Government burden that can possibly 

 he removed and leave it to dree its own weird. 



Government has not in the least helped those hundreds, 

 even thousands, of Scotch proprietors who have covered the land 

 w'th the beautiful woods which we see almost everywhere in 

 Scotland. No public department has helped those "who intro- 

 duced the larch and the sycamore, as well as these newer conifers 

 which appear to be even more promising than the larch. 



Until one has devoted special attention to the subject, one 

 has not the slightest conception of the amount of scientific experi- 

 ment in planting carried out by Scottish proprietors. I do not 

 believe that even in Germany or in France have there been experi- 

 ments on anvthing like the scale of those visible in all parts of 

 .Scotland. 



These have been conducted at enormous expense without 

 help from Government, often without scientific ad\ice, and very 

 often from the most patriotic motives. 



