TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY 



I. The Duty of the State as regards Afforestation. 



By A Correspondent. 



The last issue of the Transaciions contained a remarkable 

 collection of opinions on the duty of the State in relation to 

 silviculture. The opinions expressed were not those of only one 

 class of silviculturists, but included contributions from scientists, 

 landowners, and practical foresters — all of them men of promin- 

 ence in their class ; and what was specially noticeable was the 

 large degree of unanimity, even in matters of detail, which the 

 articles and speeches published disclosed. Along with the 

 articles we had reproduced, very properly, the views of the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer and of the deputation he met. 



It seems well worth while to attempt to summarise the 

 opinions expressed on the subject of what the State can do to 

 assist in developing silviculture in this country. That the State 

 should so assist, and indeed that no substantial progress can be 

 made without State assistance, all appear to heartily agree. 

 But the question of interest is what form such State assistance 

 should take. 



In the _/f?-i/ place, it is the opinion of all the contributors that 

 we have a large extent of land well suited for planting, which is at 

 present devoted to less useful purposes, and several of the 

 articles propose that the State should at once proceed to select 

 and survey this suitable land, so that we may know to begin 

 with exactly what material we have to work upon for planting. 



In the second place, there appears to be general agreement that 

 in this country we are a long way behind other countries in 

 knowledge and in opportunity to acquire knowledge, and that it 

 is a pressing duty on the State to provide the means of teaching 

 and training a sufficient body of practical foresters to carry out 

 efficiently the work of afforesting the land we have which is suited 

 to that purpose. 



VOL. XXIII. PART I. A 



