490 TRANSACTIONS OP ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the public. There the Treasury and the "Woods and Forests 

 Department have practically a free hand, and I am glad to say 

 that during the time I was at the Treasury I took the greatest 

 interest in the Forest of Dean. There has been inaugurated 

 there a system under which I hope — I do not know how far it 

 will be a benefit to Scotland — that the Forest of Dean may 

 gradually become, what you have been urging should be formed 

 — a sort of experimental forest, which will indicate, to those who 

 are able to see what is being done, the proper way in which to 

 manage a great forest like that. Colonel Bailey has spoken of 

 the Indian Forest Department with the knowledge which a 

 gentleman connected with it was able to bring forward. I am 

 glad to say that while I was at the Treasury we did bring over 

 from India a gentleman connected with the Indian Forest Depart- 

 ment, and we got him to travel over the Continent to see the 

 best schools of forestry, and to see the principles on which the 

 various foreign forests are managed ; and the Forest of Dean will 

 now, under his guidance, be conducted on, I think, a much more 

 rational basis than has ever been the case hitherto. Of course 

 the difficulty there is one which does not arise in foreign 

 countries, and that is in dealing with the rights of commoners. 

 A great deal of the Forest of Dean is being enclosed. As it is 

 enclosed, replanting is taking place, but this can only be a gradual 

 process, for there are difficulties even there in extending the 

 enclosures. But it is being gradually done. I have often been 

 asked, with regard to the Welsh hills, why the Woods and Forests 

 Department have not done more in the way of afforesting these 

 hills. There, again, we have to deal with public feeling and the 

 rights of commoners. The Woods and Forests Department were 

 only too anxious to carry out the views of those who wanted to see 

 the hills planted, but again the rights of commoners intervened, 

 and that made it difficult for a Government Department to do any 

 planting there. The only planting they have been able to do in 

 Wales has been on farms which were bought specially for the pur- 

 pose. The Welsh hills are suitable for planting, and their value 

 is very small, but the rights of commoners are valued so highly 

 that it has been found practically impossible to do planting there. 

 I am bound to say that in England another difficulty stands in 

 the way. I was a member of the Railway Rates Commission 

 which sat about twelve years ago, and unless you get the timber 

 cut up and sawn into shape on the spot, the cost of carriage of 



