56 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was that we are now compelled to add to the numbers of these 

 officers before they have been able to put to the practical test 

 the subject which they had been studying. Additions must be 

 made. And so, for the training of additional foresters, it is 

 necessary that we should have schools placed in suitable spots, 

 where men could learn the practical work as well as the theory 

 at the same time. 



"There is one other matter that" seems to be urgent, and that 

 is the raising of plants with a view to the afforestation future of 

 the country. The operation takes some time. We think the 

 time has come when this question should be considered in a 

 rather more comprehensive way than up to now. Up to now 

 the Forestry Department of the Board of Agriculture and the 

 corresponding authority in England have made considerable 

 preparation for planting after the war. But we think the time 

 has come when the whole position of private undertakings in 

 this direction — trade nurserymen and others — should be con- 

 sidered. Many of the nurseries have been devoted to the 

 cultivation of food crops, very properly ; but we think the time 

 Jias come for the provision of plants on a large scale. 



"There is only one other thing I want to say before I sit 

 xiown. The urgency depends not only on the question of 

 developing forestry in Scotland ; it depends also on the question 

 of reconstituting our woods which are now being torn down. I 

 have just been attached to a Department which has charge of 

 that work in Scotland, and the position has been disclosed to 

 me; and one can see that, if the war continues for a year, and, 

 still more, if it continues for two years, the woods of Scotland 

 will have been very largely swept away. It is one of the diffi- 

 culties of the whole subject that for a knowledge of forestry one 

 must almost always go abroad, and it is difficult for us even now 

 to realise how great a part the forest can play in war. 



" I would like also to call attention to the position of things 

 in Belgium. Belgium is a small country, not very much bigger 

 than Yorkshire, but its population before the war was the 

 densest in Europe. It is denser than the population of England 

 and Wales, and it is nearly four times as dense as that of 

 Scotland, although Belgium contains no area so populous as 

 Glasgow. In Belgium 18 per cent, of the total area of the 

 country is occupied by wood ; in Scotland, something under 

 4 per cent. The reason Belgium carries so large a population 



