TKANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY 



15. The Immediate Needs of Forestry in Scotland.^ 



By Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Bart. 



The present is a critical moment for forestry in this country. 

 For the first time within the recollection of any one living, a 

 large body of public opinion is interested in the subject. 

 Public opinion in a matter of science can never be fully 

 instructed, but we have reached a stage when a great many 

 people have grasped the fact that we are behind other countries 

 in the matter of silviculture : that the steady rise in the price 

 of timber justifies some action on the part of the Government to 

 increase our home supplies : that if we are to increase our rural 

 population, forestry and its attendant industries are the means 

 to which we must look for the realisation of that hope. We 

 are now face to face with a new Parliament, and there is 

 usually a vigour about a new Parliament of which we must 

 try to make the best use. We have an advantage in the 

 fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is friendly to our 

 ideas. He has shown his friendliness by relieving silviculture 

 of some of the burdens which have pressed upon it most 

 seriously, and he has also, in his scheme for the utilisation 

 of the Development Grant, outlined a policy which exactly 

 commends itself to the wishes of this Society. It is, therefore, 

 with great hope that we look forward to the immediate future. 

 In these circumstances, I think we ought to have clearly in 

 our minds what we want to see done. 



In the first place, we desire to have a survey of the ground 

 which is adapted for planting in Scotland. Perhaps everyone 

 here has not realised the difficulties of such a survey. No 

 one imagines that the whole of the waste land in this country 



^ Presidential address delivered to the Society at the General Meeting on 

 the nth February 1910. 



VOL. XXIII. PART II. I 



