148 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a very large county of Scotland, that he took up half an hour 

 of their very valuable time — for they had come from all parts 

 of the county — in explaining to them what he held out to the 

 discharged soldiers as to what they might expect from devoting 

 themselves to forestry. My friend told me that the lecturer 

 actually told this Pensions Committee — and it would not have 

 mattered if he had been speaking on his own behalf, but he 

 was speaking for the Scottish Board of Agriculture — he said 

 something like this, that a discharged soldier without any 

 previous forestry experience, who devoted himself to forestry 

 work for fifteen months, would be qualified to take a place as 

 a leading forester at ;z^i5o a year. That was told me by a 

 gentleman who is very careful what he says, and I ask anyone 

 who knows anything about learning the work of forestry, 

 either as under forester or head forester, whether that man 

 was not talking the most absolute nonsense. So much for our 

 confidence in this branch of the dual control that governs 

 our affairs. 



" I want to quote another page from this Blue Book, that is, 

 from the Minority Report of the only Commissioner who did 

 not agree with the majority. He was a Treasury official, and 

 it is interesting to see what his alternative was to the scheme 

 put forward by the majority of his colleagues. On page 72, 

 he points out what he thinks are the difficulties which would 

 not be solved by the institution of a single authority, and he 

 goes on, ' But I see no reason why, if the control of operations 

 be left in the hands of the existing departments, suitably 

 strengthened for the purpose, the programme for each year 

 should not be determined by means of a Joint Committee, 

 consisting of the heads or selected representatives of the three 

 departments. And assuming that Parliament is prepared to 

 vote an amount to cover afforestation operations over such 

 given period, it ought not to be difficult to apportion for the 

 purposes of an estimate the amounts which would be required 

 by each department for each ensuing year. Any amount which 

 might be voted by Parliament to meet the needs of the Board 

 of Agriculture (England), Board of Agriculture (Scotland), and 

 Department of Agriculture (Ireland) over a period of years 

 would then be drawn upon by each department to the extent 

 recommended by the Central Committee ' (which obviously 

 means the Joint Committee that he has just mentioned), and 



