yo TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



opinion on that subject, and you will not expect me to offer one 

 to-day for the very simple reason that the matter is beyond my 

 jurisdiction, and that the proposal of a State Department of that 

 kind will have to be considered by all the authorities interested 

 — and there are other interested authorities beyond the Scottish 

 Office and the Scottish Board of Agriculture. In all probability 

 I should think the matter will have to be discussed by the 

 various authorities interested, and then possibly decided by the 

 War Cabinet. At any rate, it would be obviously futile and 

 foolish on my part to presume at this stage to offer a definite 

 opinion on the matter. All I can fittingly say, I think, is that 

 the view you have expressed is one which I am bound to bear 

 in mind, and to transmit to the proper quarter when the time 

 for discussion arrives. The other suggestion, so far as machinery 

 is concerned, is of a more modest and intimate character. 

 It is really that the Board of Agriculture in Scotland should be 

 to some extent remodelled, and that there should be a separate 

 Department of Forestry with a separate staff, and separate 

 duties, and a separate fund. That proposal, I understand, was 

 made by Lord Pentland as far back as 191 1, and it is well 

 worthy of consideration, and I shall certainly deem it my duty 

 to consider it. I have already considered it, I may say, 

 although not in detail. But there again it is obvious that that 

 proposal dovetails into the other, and that you cannot reach a 

 determination on that more modest proposal until you have 

 weighed the pros and cons of both. The matter is beyond my 

 sole jurisdiction, but I will only say that the two proposals 

 deserve and will receive full consideration by those who have 

 a right to consider them. 



"There is no doubt, as bearing on that latter proposal, that in 

 the past there has been complaint with regard to the progress 

 which forestry has made in Scotland under the charge of the 

 Board of Agriculture, but it is fair to remember two things ; 

 first of all, that the chief official in charge of forestry — I mean 

 Mr Sutherland — was only a part-time official, who had many 

 duties of an onerous character to discharge as Commissioner 

 for Small Holdings: and, secondly, that there was quite in- 

 sufficient finance provided, as I humbly think, for the purpose of 

 carrying out extended and suitable forestry operations. Now the 

 mere fact that these two drawbacks existed in the past does not 

 seem to me by any means conclusive as to what can be done 



