FORESTRY TRAINING FOR DISCHARGED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. I 89 



of the war. That, at least, has been my own experience. 

 Unless something can be done to attract men to this occupation 

 and to provide suitable training, the scarcity is, I fear, likely to 

 remain as great, or even greater, after demobilisation and the 

 return of men to civil employment. The standard of forestry 

 wages has, no doubt, been comparatively low in the past, for 

 the reason that had they been any higher it would have been 

 practically impossible to produce timber except at a loss. 

 Forestry wages have generally corresponded fairly closely with 

 agricultural wages, and are likely to continue to do so and to 

 be permanently higher in the future. These higher wages can 

 only be maintained by a correspondingly higher price for timber. 

 A very large part of the necessary expenses in connection with 

 forestry operations consists of labour, more especially the cost 

 of planting and establishing a new crop of trees. This initial 

 outlay must be kept down if economic forestry is to be possible 

 in Scotland, for the reason that it is cost of planting reckoned 

 at compound interest which is the heaviest item in growing a 

 crop of timber, and which usually determines whether there is 

 a profit or a loss. It is thus absolutely essential, if wages are 

 to be higher than before the war, as I think they necessarily 

 must be, that the average standard of skill should be higher 

 also. I have always been strongly in favour of the system 

 of piece-work wages for felling timber and all other forestry 

 operations where this method of payment can be made 

 applicable. It is a system which has been in practice for 

 some years on my English estates, and the men earn large 

 wages, to our mutual advantage. 



With regard to the proposals for training which you have 

 more immediately in view, I will be glad to consider any 

 detailed scheme which may be prepared, and, if possible, to 

 afford assistance in the direction which you indicate by 

 allowing men under training to acquire manual and technical 

 skill by practical forestry work. It would, I think, be difficult 

 to arrange for lecture and class instruction in the outlying 

 districts, and another difficulty which might also arise is that 

 of housing. At the present time in this district, for instance, 

 housing accommodation is almost unobtainable even in the 

 shape of lodgings, owing to the proximity of the Gretna Munition 

 Works. 



I would suggest that in selecting men for training it would 



