122 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



can be planted. Deductions have to be made on the score 

 of elevation and bad soil, and further deductions have to be 

 made for land which can be more profitably devoted to other 

 purposes, or which is required for the wintering, indispensable 

 to areas which cannot be planted. My predecessor in this 

 chair has called attention, in an article printed in the last 

 number of the Transactions, to the serious effect which whole- 

 sale planting would have on the local finance of some Highland 

 counties. That is another consideration which will have to 

 be borne in mind. But it must be remembered that the 

 whole essence of any scheme of silviculture lies in a proper 

 rotation under which the crops will become ripe year by year 

 in order. Therefore to arrive at the area to be planted in 

 any single year, after making the deductions mentioned above, 

 the whole area intended for forest must be divided, generally 

 speaking, by the number of years fixed for the rotation, which 

 will, I suppose, be something between 80 and 120. It will 

 thus be seen that the area to be planted in a single year in 

 any district cannot be very large, and by the time the forest is 

 complete, the area first planted will be more profitable and 

 better able to make a contribution to local finance than the 

 grazings which the forest has replaced. We consider this 

 survey an essential preliminary to anything else. It is not 

 possible for our Society, which is expected to lead opinion 

 in these matters, to form a plan, or tender advice to the 

 Government, until we really know what the extent of the 

 problem is which we have to tackle. Should any reason 

 intervene to prevent the Government from undertaking this 

 survey at once, I think it will be the duty of the Society to 

 undertake at least a sample of such a survey on its own 

 account, in order that we may form an opinion of the manner 

 in which this difficult undertaking should be conducted. 



Another preliminary for which we have to press, is the 

 provision of what is called a Demonstration Forest. Such an 

 area would not only afford a field for scientific experiments, but 

 would also provide a school for Forestry apprentices. Mr 

 Nisbet has done well in calling attention to this subject. 

 Nothing can be more unsatisfactory, or to my mind more 

 pathetic, than the fact that the excellent teaching which is now 

 given by most competent experts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and 

 Aberdeen, is inevitably so much divorced from practical work. 



