488 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which sat thirteen or fourteen years ago brought out very clearly 

 — at least it did to my mind — the fact that we are very much 

 behind other nations in our knowledge and practice of forestry. I 

 do not know how far that may be due to the fact that at the 

 present moment there is no one department of State with which 

 forestry is specially connected. You point out, for example, in 

 your opening resolution, that the Congested District Board for 

 Scotland should do something for forestry. Well, that is a depart- 

 ment over which the Board of Agriculture has practically no 

 control whatever. Then you suggest that a good deal more might 

 be done in Scotland and England — in Scotland more particularly — 

 for education in forestry. Well, I am determined not to allow one 

 portion of agricultural education in England to go from the 

 control of the Board of Agriculture; but a distinction is made 

 in Scotland, and the Board of Agriculture, as you know, has no 

 control over Scottish education. It is entirely in the Scottish 

 Office. Then again, there is the Department of Woods and 

 Forests. The Crown forests would naturally afford the best 

 possible field for instruction in forestry. But again I point out 

 to you that they are not under my control, but under the Office 

 of Woods and Forests and the Treasury. As so often happens 

 in England, and we regret exceedingly to find it so, an important 

 subject of this kind, instead of being managed from beginning to 

 end by one department, is split up among two or three or four. 

 Although I am receiving this deputation to-day, do not suppose 

 I speak with more than one quarter of authority. I have got 

 three other colleagues to consult ; but I will take care to see that 

 what you, gentlemen, have said is laid before them. So much 

 for the State attitude with regard to forestry. It is only fair to 

 recollect that at any rate up to the present moment, and probably 

 for many years ahead, until, say, a timber famine might possibly 

 arise, the position of Great Britain is in a good many respects 

 different from that of some of those Continental countries where, 

 no doubt, timber-growing is made much more profitable than it 

 is here. To begin with, in a country where coal is so abundant 

 as it is in England, we do not have the demand on our forests for 

 firewood which undoubtedly exists, for instance, in France, and 

 to a gi-eat extent in portions of Germany. Then again, it is a 

 fact that over the greater portion both of England and Scotland 

 timber is not grown for profit. I suppose the proper way 

 really to grow timber for profit is to grow it as one sees 



