220 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
our disposal, we could not rely for our purposes on any privately 
owned estate, as we could never be sure that any system of 
management which we might introduce with the proprietor’s 
approval, would be continuously followed ; nor could we even feel 
confidence that the forest itself would not be withdrawn from our 
use at any moment. The ownership of private estates changes by 
succession or sale, and successive owners may desire to alter the 
object of management ; while, in any case, they do not all take the 
same interest in their woods, nor have the same degree of knowledge 
as to how they should be treated; and circumstances may even 
constrain a proprietor to follow a course which he knows is not 
that best calculated to improve his property. ‘‘ But,” it might be 
urged, ‘‘even so, the woods of Scotland are the property of private 
owners, who would benefit by any improvement the model forests 
might lead to. Let them provide the needful funds.” At first 
sight this may seem a strong argument against the State coming to 
our assistance. But private owners can hardly be expected to 
respond readily to a suggestion of this kind until it has been 
proved to them what measure of financial success may be looked 
for here under improved methods of management. The practical 
demonstration of this prospect is one of the principal objects we 
have in view when desiring to establish model forests. Then again, 
proprietors are not by any means the only class who would benefit 
by the introduction of system into our management ; for if it could 
be proved that profits are assured, and if this led to an extension of 
the wooded area, our supplies of timber would be better secured 
than they now are, and employment would be given in country 
districts to a large number of people who would be very glad to 
obtain it. 
We may thus approach the Minister of Agriculture, feeling 
assured that our cause is a good one, and may urge that he will 
induce the Government to aid us in these our first efforts towards 
the improvement of the position of forestry in this country, by 
providing the sum necessary for the acquisition of a State Model 
Forest in connection with the Forest School at Edinburgh. The 
difficulties which oppose themselves to private action in this direc- 
tion are so strong, and the importance of the forest question in 
Scotland is so great, that we feel confidence in submitting that of 
all enterprises to which the State can offer aid or encouragement 
in the public interest, Forestry is that which has the strongest 
claim for consideration by the Government. 
