I2S TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Committee of the Reconstruction Committee are adopted, said: — 

 "The chief recommendation of the Forestry Sub-Committee is 

 that 1,770,000 acres should be planted in Great Britain, beyond 

 the re-planting of the areas that have been cut down during the 

 war or that are at present in existence. Many estimates of the 

 amount of land that is more suitable for forestry than for other 

 purposes have been made and they vary a good deal, but in all 

 of them there is this similarity that at least half of that land is 

 in Scotland, so that Scotland is more interested in this recom- 

 mendation than other parts of the kingdom in proportion to its 

 size, wealth, and population. On the assumption that half the 

 area to be planted is in Scotland, it follows that 885,000 acres 

 in Scotland would be planted during the period considered by 

 the Sub Committee, and, if their recommendation is followed, 

 590,000 acres would be planted in the next forty years, and 

 100,000 in the first ten years following the war. If their 

 estimate of the amount of land suitable for forestry is anything 

 like correct, there can be no doubt that there is plenty of land 

 in Scotland for this recommendation to be carried out in 

 addition to the areas that have been felled during the war, 

 and any new areas that private proprietors are able and willing 

 to plant; the difficulty arises in finding the money, the labour, 

 and the housing for the men who will be employed in this work. 

 For these purposes the Sub-Committee proposes that Parliament 

 should provide the money, either entirely, in cases where the 

 State acquires the land and plants it, or in part, where the 

 owners make the plantations : from this it follows that one-half 

 of whatever money Parliament provides should come to Scotland 

 and be spent in developing the country. Up to the present 

 time any money that Parliament has provided has not been 

 distributed or spent in this way. The Sub-Committee also 

 recommend that after demobilisation soldiers and sailors should 

 be employed in making these plantations, thus providing healthy 

 employment for the men who have gone to fight their country's 

 battles. They have made no recommendation, so far as I can 

 see, about the housing. The broad result of the adoption of 

 the Sub-Committee's recommendations would be an improve- 

 ment of the economic condition of Scotland and the provision of 

 an occupation and the fostering of an industry that would bring 

 an addition to the rural population, which has been neglected 

 in the past much to the detriment of the country's welfare. 



