66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



at four centres in England and Wales, minor forestry experi- 

 ments and surveys. 



"Application was made by the Board for a grant of ^£1500 

 from the Development Fund with a view to the formation of a 

 statistical section in the Board's Forestry Branch to collect and 

 correlate the data afforded by the fellings which are now taking 

 place. The Commissioners were in complete agreement with 

 the Board as to the importance and urgency of securing and 

 analysing the information with a view to afforestation after the 

 war, but it did not appear to them that the constitution of a 

 statistical section at the Board for this purpose was an object 

 properly to be charged upon the Development Fund. The 

 Commissioners have in their recommendations upon such cases 

 adopted the principle that payment for additional staff in a 

 Government Department should only be defrayed from the 

 Fund, instead of from the ordinary Vote of the Department, 

 in cases where the necessity for such additional staff arises out 

 of some scheme of development which is being conducted in 

 connection with the Fund. In the present case, although the 

 work contemplated was of an emergency character, and the 

 grant for the statistical section was in the first instance only 

 asked for six months, the Commissioners were unable to find 

 that the proposed section differed essentially from the ordinary 

 staff of the Board's Forestry Branch, the collection of data as 

 to the growth of timber being part of the normal work of a 

 Forestry Department. 



" The Commissioners have continued to give attention to the 

 provision of forest tree seedlings in case there may be a shortage 

 after the war, when replanting on a large scale will be imperative, 

 having regard particularly to the extensive areas of timber which 

 have been felled during the war. Grants to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture and Fisheries and the Commissioners of Woods for the 

 provision of nursery stock have been made from the Develop- 

 ment Fund during the past three years, and it is estimated that 

 40,000,000 seedlings were produced by the close of the 19 17 

 season. About one-third of the total growing stock is imme- 

 diately available for the afforestation of some 5000 or 6000 

 acres. An application was received from the Commissioners 

 of Woods for a grant of ^6905, in order to meet expenditure 

 in the year 191 7-18. It was arranged to line out all the 

 seedlings, raised both by the Commissioners of Woods and 



