72 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCO'OISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in Scotland. I did not require to be convinced, but if I had 

 required to be convinced, I think these two sights alone would 

 have convinced me. I am aware that there has been something 

 resembling a deadlock in the past in forestry. I do not seek 

 to apportion the blame, if any, for it, but I do say to-day that 

 it will certainly not be my fault if some progress is not made, 

 and made at an early date." 



Sir John Stirling-Maxwell. — " I did not intend to attack Sir 

 William Haldane's reputation as a forester; we all know his 

 interest in the subject, and I am quite sure he knows more than 

 I do, but what I meant to say was that I did not envy his 

 position on the Development Commission as one of the two 

 representatives of forestry among a large number of colleagues, 

 and I was rather contrasting the qualifications of the Develop- 

 ment Commission as against an expert Department dealing with 

 that subject alone." 



Mr C. Buchanan, in moving a vote of thanks to the Secretary 

 for Scotland, said he was quite certain Mr Munro would do his 

 best in the interest of the nation. 



4. Forestry Reconstruction. 



By Colonel Stirling of Keir. 



The report of the Forestry Sub-Committee of the Reconstruc- 

 tion Committee was completed in May 19 17, and in the interval 

 between its completion and its publication there has been ample 

 time for its consideration by the Government, in spite of the 

 very large amount of urgent work in all departments at the 

 present time ; a circumstance which gives great importance to 

 the decision to publish it. 



The present report differs from several predecessors in many 

 ways, and perhaps most notably in the conditions in which it 

 was called for. Other reports were of the nature of suggestions 

 for the development of forestry to be considered at leisure; the 

 present report embodies a plan for dealing with an emergency 

 which is with us here and now, and, whatever its fate may be, 

 it is at least unlikely that it will end like its predecessors in a 

 niche in one of those official columbaria where the dust gathers 

 thick upon the urns containing the ashes of still-born or strangled 

 schemes of improvement. Mr Acland and his colleagues have 



