STATEMENT BY THE COUNCIL REGARDING AFFORESTATION. 9 I 



Should there prove to be objections of which we are unaware 

 against the creation of a State Department for forestry, and 

 should it be deemed advisable for forestry to remain under the 

 Board of Agriculture, we consider it essential that there should 

 be a branch of the Board dealing with forestry alone, and 

 provided with a separate staff and a separate fund. This point 

 has frequently been urged in the past by the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society, and a promise was given by the Secretary 

 for Scotland, as long ago as 191 1, that the desired change would 

 be made, but the promise remains unfulfilled. Failing an 

 independent Forestry Department, it will be necessary that some 

 such change should be carried out. 



17. The Society's Annual Meeting : President's 

 Address and Discussion. 



At the Society's Annual Meeting, held on 7th February, 

 the Chairman, Sir Andrew Agnew, in moving the adoption of 

 the Report of Council, said: — "We have elected all the office- 

 bearers for the ensuing year, and I have to thank you for the 

 honour you have done me in re-electing me as President. I 

 am very proud to accept your invitation and to continue as 

 your President for another year. 



"I should consider it a great privilege to occupy the position 

 during the ensuing year if it should prove, as it seems likely to 

 prove, a year of great importance to the cause of forestry. I 

 think you will all have noticed in the speech which Mr Lloyd 

 George made to the House of Commons, in which he announced 

 the policy of the present Government, that one point that he 

 insisted upon was that every acre of land in the country should 

 be made productive. At the moment he was only referring, 

 of course, to agriculture, but the principle that he laid down 

 is just as applicable to silviculture, and I do not think that 

 Mr Lloyd George would have any objection to that extension 

 of it. Indeed, I think that we have reason to look upon his 

 appointment as Prime Minister as being of great promise for 

 the future of afforestation. He is the one important statesman 

 who has shown any appreciation of the subject, and the only 

 one who has made any definite attempt to deal with it. When 



