I40 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



19. The Development Act and Forestry. 



By R. C. MuNRO Fergusojj, M.P. 



Until the Commissioners appointed under the Development 

 Act bring their Department into working order, it is difficult 

 to estimate what will be the influence of this new body upon 

 afforestation and silviculture. One of the Commissioners is 

 a forest expert, and one or two others have some knowledge of 

 plantations. The agricultural interest is exceedingly sensitive 

 as regards the afforestation policy of the Commission, on the 

 ground that it may absorb some undue proportion of the 

 available resources. That is, however, a groundless fear, 

 because it must be a matter of some years before any large 

 scheme of afforestation can be undertaken, and an expenditure 

 averaging ^50,000 for the first six or eight years is probably 

 as much as could be well laid out on the requisite preliminary 

 steps. 



To provide a central machinery, the best plan would probably 

 be to reorganise the Office of Woods and Forests as a real 

 National Board of Forestry, and in view of the fact that the 

 main sphere for its operations must be in Scotland, it should 

 have a Department in Edinburgh. In order to secure that the 

 Board should be in a position to devote its attention exclusively 

 to forestry, the farm lands now managed by the Woods and 

 Forests Department ought to be transferred to the Board of 

 Agriculture, and the ground rents to the Treasury or some 

 other Department. If that should not be feasible then a 

 Forestry Board for the United Kingdom should be created. 

 This Board of Forestry would then proceed to organise the 

 necessary surveys, report upon and "plan" the areas suitable for 

 afforestation, purchase demonstration areas, and create centres 

 of silvicultural training. It is high time that we should have 

 our own system of forestry, for, much as we owe to Germany, 

 it is idle to continue to hang upon her apron strings. As 

 soon as these preliminaries are completed, the Board should 

 direct its attention to the afforestation of waste lands, either 

 as a State operation upon the great scale, or, in the case of 

 smaller areas, by co-operation with private owners. 



It is essential that there should be some reliable authority, of 

 the nature of a Board of Forestry, to prepare the schemes for 

 which the Development Commission would recommend the 



