180 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The employers of the people in country districts cannot now 

 command that good and honest labour which they formerly 

 possessed. The rural population, which has hitherto been the 

 backbone of the country, is steadily declining. Is it not the 

 wish and work of the philanthropist, that the factory hands and 

 workers in large cities could be transferred to the country, to 

 less populated parts, in order that they may enjoy more fresh 

 air, and thereby gain better health 1 How can these social and 

 industrial problems be solved for the nation's good 1 To my 

 mind, the only right and proper solution is the creating of new 

 forests by the State on the waste lands of the country; and then 

 would follow the establishment of works in country districts by 

 private enterprise, for the manufacture of all kinds of forest 

 produce. Thus we see that the subject of afforesting uncultivated 

 lands is not a parochial or local one, but is a work of national 

 importance of the greatest moment. It is computed that there 

 are about eight millions of acres in Scotland of waste lands 

 which could be profitably planted; and there are also similar 

 areas in both England and Ireland which could be brought 

 under the control of the forester for the nation's welfare and 

 prosperity. I saw it stated recently in the public papers, that 

 within a radius of fifty miles of London, there are 700,000 acres 

 of land unaccounted for. What an immense benefit it would be 

 to the teeming population of the capital if those lands could be 

 acquired and planted. Why should the Government of the 

 country allow this wasteful policy to continue ? We have been 

 reproached by Continental countries for this neglect, as it is the 

 case that most European states are large owners of woodlands; 

 and they also work them for the benefit of the people, in the 

 same way as we manage the Post Office and Telegraph service. 

 How do we account for the British Government being so 

 neglectful of Forestry, one of the highest interests of our land 1 

 It is, perhaps, that not enough of pressure has been brought 

 to bear upon the Executive. 



Governments nowadays are very amenable to pressure ; they 

 all angle very artfully for votes. It is, therefore, surely high 

 time that such an influential Society as the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural should bestir themselves in this direction. It 

 is our bounden duty to educate such a volume of public opinion 

 as will make the Government undertake at once their natural 

 work (so long delayed) of education in the art of Forestry and 



