TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



EOYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



i6. Statement by the Council regarding 

 Afforestation. 



The following statement contains the recommendations of the 

 Council of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society regarding 

 afforestation, in reply to a letter from the Secretary of the 

 Forestry Sub-Committee of the Reconstruction Committee, 

 asking for an expression of their views on the subject. 



I. Need for Action by Government. 



After the reports of a Royal Commission on Forestry and of 

 more than one Departmental Committee on the subject, it would 

 be superfluous to discuss either the need for further afforestation, 

 or the duty of the Government to assist in the work. The 

 simple fact that we spent more than 40 million pounds in 1913 

 upon imported wood, is sufficient to show, both the enormous 

 extent to which the home-grown supply falls short of our 

 requirements, and the impossibility of expecting private effort to 

 make up the deficiency. 



The question has attracted a good deal of attention in recent 

 years, and all who have studied it have been struck by the great 

 loss which the nation suffers in paying away to foreigners 

 immense sums of money which might be retained in the country 

 for the benefit of its own people. And since the war began we 

 have had occasion to feel that our reliance upon foreign 

 countries for such a large proportion of our timber requirements 

 is not only a material loss but a source of danger. 



How dependent we are upon wood is, perhaps, not sufficiently 

 appreciated. It is not too much to say that civilized life could 

 not go on without it. The amount required by railways, 

 collieries, and other vital industries is gigantic ; and to these 

 must now be added the enormous consumption of wood in 



VOL. XXXI. PART II. F 



