76 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



minister already overburdened with a multiplicity of cares and 

 duties, to some other office in London where an ad hoc a.uthonty 

 will be presided over by a minister able to give his whole time 

 to the administration of silviculture. Separate branches of the 

 department will be established in England and in Scotland, and 

 it is probable that the Scottish branch, in view of the greater 

 field for development in Scotland, will be the more important of 

 the two. It will be staffed by Scotsmen and run on Scottish 

 lines. Where is the injury to Scotland in this proposal? The 

 Scottish members of the Sub Committee were unanimous in 

 recommending it, and it has the support of the great majority 

 of competent and independent opinion in Scotland. It will be 

 very unfortunate if any serious controversy should be raised 

 over a recommendation to which the Sub-Committee attach 

 great importance, and from which the only dissenting voice on 

 the Sub-Committee was that of one who is neither a Scotsman 

 nor an expert in silviculture. 



The methods by which the report proposes to deal with the 

 actual work of afforestation are neither heroic nor timid. The 

 plan of the first ten years' work is laid down in some detail. Two 

 hundred thousand acres of new planting and 50,000 of replanting 

 are to be undertaken in that period ; it may, perhaps, be objected 

 that 50,000 acres is not a large proportion of the area which will 

 have been felled during the war, but the danger from insect 

 pests on felled areas will be much greater than on new ground, 

 at all events for the first half of the ten-year period, and there- 

 fore it is a prudent policy not to force the pace of replanting. 

 Of the 200,000 acres of new ground, it is contemplated that 

 150,000 will be planted by direct State action on purchased or 

 leased land, and that 50,000 acres will be planted by private or 

 corporate enterprise with some assistance from the State. State 

 assistance to private enterprise is looked at askance by some 

 people. Those who have doubts on the subject will do well to 

 weigh carefully the arguments set forth in the report, and the 

 methods proposed by it. 



No attempt is made in the report to allocate between England 

 and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the relative amount of the total 

 area to be afforested, the allocation being left to the proposed 

 Forest Authority, It is, however, recorded that the experience 

 of the war has shown that military as well as industrial con- 

 siderations demand that timber supplies should not be concen- 



