170 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



districts. A good example of this was given by Professor Bayley 

 Balfour, when he pointed out to the British Association in 1894, 

 in urging the claims of Forestry to recognition and assistance, 

 that a sixty-one-years-old plantation of 24 acres of pine and larch, 

 cut by Mr Munro Ferguson of Novar, in 1883, yielded a return 

 averaging 9s. per acre per annum, against from Is. to 2s. yielded 

 by the adjacent grazing land, while the outlay upon labour 

 for the plantation had been at the rate of 31s. per acre per 

 annum. If liberal provisions could be made for enabling land- 

 owners to obtain money on easy terms for such ultimately re- 

 munerative investments, no doubt the owners of estates would 

 already have manifested a greater desire than they have yet 

 shown to grow timber upon business principles ; and the State 

 itself would derive substantial benefit from profitable utilisation 

 of portions of over sixteen million acres of ground now forming 

 only poor hill pasture, barren moors, and waste land. 



The State, however, has done little or nothing as yet for the 

 proper encouragement of Forestry. Even the above meagre 

 recommendations made by the Forestry Committee in 1887 

 have not been acted on, although it is only fair to say that 

 some assistance has been given to the teaching of this branch 

 of technical education at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle, 

 under the Board of Agriculture Act, 1889. The Committee 

 also embodied in their report the opinion that, though " the 

 woodlands belonging to the State are comparatively small," yet 

 "even as regards them, the difference between skilful and un- 

 skilled management, would of itself more than repay the cost 

 of a forest school." This charge of neglect led to the appoint- 

 ment of another Select Committee in 1889, to "inquire into the 

 administration of the Department of Woods and Forests and 

 Land Revenues of the Crown." In their final report, in 1890, 

 this Committee were "of opinion that, on the whole, the estates 

 are carefully administered, and that the Commissioners dis- 

 charge their duties faithfully and efficiently." It is impossible 

 to reconcile this statement with the previous finding of the 

 Forestry Committee of 1887, until it be regarded as a mere 

 study in casuistry. The fact is, the hands of the Commissioners 

 of Woods, and of their Deputy Surveyors, are so tied by Acts 

 of Parliament that they are unable to carry out improvements 

 which they know to be desirable. As was pointed out to the 

 Committee by the Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest, over 



