A DEVELOPMENT GRANT. 3 



By a DEMONSTRATION FOREST we mean an area where 

 Silviculture in all its branches can be practised and studied in 

 accordance with British conditions. If the survey shows that 

 the area to be aflforested is as large as we expect, and practical 

 experience confirms that view, — more than one Demonstration 

 Forest will no doubt be required in Scotland. We believe, 

 however, that it will be wiser to begin with one forest ^ and one 

 school. 



It is desirable that the Forest should be central and accessible, 

 and essential that it should contain a considerable area of 

 growing timber of different ages. Inverliever, unfortunately, 

 fulfils neither of these conditions. An area of 10,000 acres 

 would be sufficient. Suitable estates have recently changed 

 hands at reasonable prices. Our Council is prepared to inquire 

 further into the question of possible sites, if desired. The 

 standing crop will not and need not be perfect. The first lesson 

 the Forest will have to demonstrate, is the conversion of bad 

 woods into good. The Forest should from the beginning be 

 worked on a regular plan, thus providing another much needed 

 lesson. Accurate records and accounts should be kept, and the 

 results of the numerous desultory experiments whicb have been 

 made throughout Scotland, should be collected anci compared, 

 and their progress watched. The science of British Silviculture, 

 for which the materials already largely exist, wj|ll thus be 

 gradually built up. 



The FOREST SCHOOL should be attacfaetTto the Forest 

 and under the same officer. Our Council will be glad, if desired, 

 to advise as to a scheme for the allocation of Forest education 

 between this new school and the Universities and Agricultural 

 Colleges of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, which now 

 provide courses in Forestry. It is enough to say here that the 

 Council contemplates the establishment in the Forest of a school 

 for working apprentices, which would provide for a class of 

 student which finds great difficulty in attending the Universities, 

 and would bring them into that close touch with forest work 

 which is conspicuously lacking at present. The University 

 classes would thenceforward be confined to students who desired 



' Should the Demonstration Forest be mainly coniferous, it may be 

 necessary to have a detached hardwood area, as there are extensive woods 

 of this character in the south of Scotland of which the proper management 

 urgently requires demonstration. 



