THE FUTURE OF FORESTRY. 3 



I hope you will excuse me for dwelling on facts which are 

 so familiar to you. I thought they might bear repeating at the 

 present time, as there are still persons needing to be convinced. 

 And I wished to emphasise, not merely my own conviction, but 

 what I know to be the conviction of every member of our 

 •Society, that, when the war is over, and the Government begin 

 to look about them for resources which are capable of being 

 developed, they will find no opening more promising than that 

 of afforestation, and no scheme which will more liberally repay 

 any capital which may be expended upon it. 



And while afforestation is desirable on its own merits, there is 

 a special reason for carrying it out at the present time, and that 

 is the opportunity it affords of settling returning soldiers on the 

 land. The Government have introduced a measure for the 

 establishment of farm colonies for the benefit of discharged 

 soldiers and sailors, and one of these colonies is to be in 

 Scotland. We shall all wish success to any such scheme. 

 But for my part I believe that if the Government wish to create 

 small holdings in Scotland on economic lines and with a 

 certainty of success, they must do it in connection with afforesta- 

 tion. For the State, small holdings in connection with forestry 

 would be the cheapest plan, since land bordering on the forest 

 areas could be obtained at a far cheaper rate than land in the 

 richer agricultural districts. For the small holder also it would 

 be the best plan, and afford the best prospect of success. A 

 small holder who has nothing to depend on but his agricultural 

 holding must starve unless he can make profit enough out of his 

 little farm to support himself and his family the whole year 

 round. But in a holding on the edge of a forest he need only 

 make enough to keep him for half the year, and he would be 

 certain of regular employment at good wages for the other 

 half. 



I would refer to just one more reason for afforestation, and 

 that is that along with forestry there would arise a number of 

 new industries providing healthy employment, and retaining in 

 the countryside thousands of workers who would otherwise be 

 driven into the towns. Every one realises now that the first 

 need of a country is a sound and vigorous population, and this 

 can only be obtained by having a large proportion of the people 

 living and working in the country. Afforestation would go a 

 long way towards solving the problem in Scotland. What a 



