society's meeting with interim forest authority. 23 



sharing scheme or some of the leasing schemes, but I find that 

 the grant of £2 per acre seems to be the most popular type of 

 scheme. Most of the proprietors with whom I have had dis- 

 cussions on the subject are desirous of carrying out the work 

 themselves, and what is wanted from the State is chiefly 

 financial assistance in the shape of grants towards the cost of 

 planting. I have no doubt, however, that there are certain 

 districts where the proceeds-sharing scheme would be the most 

 suitable type to be put into operation. 



" I see that Mr Macdonald and I have also been asked to refer 

 to the rabbit and squirrel question. Economic forestry is quite 

 impossible unless rabbits are thoroughly kept down. Most of 

 the proprietors who have informed me that they are going in 

 for extensive planting operations have decided that it will be 

 necessary to employ trappers to keep down the rabbits, but it 

 would be useless to trap rabbits if they were not at the same 

 time prevented from coming in from neighbouring estates. I 

 think the rabbit question should be taken up by the Forest 

 Authority. As to squirrel damage, I think it can be said that 

 most of our middle-aged woods in the North of Scotland have 

 suffered severely from squirrels. I have rarely seen a plantation 

 where squirrel damage has not been evident. The Forest 

 Authority should also take up the question of how to have the 

 squirrel exterminated." 



Mr Macdonald. — " My experience after visiting the wooded 

 areas in the East of Scotland bears out pretty much what 

 Mr Leslie has found. During the last four years, I have come 

 in contact with a large proportion of the landowners in the 

 East of Scotland College area, and in every instance I have 

 found that they are most anxious to plant ; not only do they 

 wish to replant those areas which have been recently felled, 

 but they seem anxious to increase, and increase very largely, 

 their plantable areas. In the East of Scotland I think I am safe 

 in saying that the estates, as a rule, are on a much smaller scale 

 than some of those in the north, and all along I have found 

 that the principal difficulty with these proprietors is the want 

 of practical advice. These estates are so small that they cannot 

 really afford to pay a first-class forester. They are willing to 

 plant, but do not know how to go about it. They do not know 

 the species of trees that suit different soils, how to group the 



