4 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a higher training, and required the tuition of experts in Botany, 

 Chemistry, Entomology, Geology, Engineering, etc., in addition 

 to Silviculture. A course of practical Silviculture in the Forest 

 would also form part of the curriculum of these higher students. 



No public body recognises more cordially than our Society 

 the advance accomplished in the constitution of the Development 

 Commission, and none can be more anxious to be of assistance 

 to it. If, in this Memorandum, the Society ventures to deal 

 broadly with the whole question, it is because our whole energies 

 have been devoted for twenty years to endeavouring to attract 

 the aid of the State in securing a wide extension of Silviculture 

 on sound lines. We fear that the applications for money grants 

 which reach the Commissioners, however good in themselves, 

 may not provide the basis of a sufficiently simple and com- 

 prehensive scheme, and we believe that promiscuous grants to 

 all kinds of subordinate authorities would be fatal both to 

 National progress and to economy of public resources. 



We are eager to see a beginning made at once, but know that 

 so important a National undertaking will require very orderly 

 and gradual development. The art of Silviculture is still at a 

 low ebb in Great Britain, and we are convinced that the first 

 steps must be educational. The steps advocated above, being 

 designed to supply accurate information and trained men, are 

 equally essential whether the actual work of afforestation is to 

 be undertaken by private individuals or by the State, or, as we 

 hope it may be, by a combination of both. They are, moreover, 

 quite as necessary for the improvement of our existing woodlands. 

 These, though small and neglected as compared with the woods 

 of other countries, are still considerable in themselves. Improved 

 management can make them of great value to their owners and 

 to the country as a whole. This reform requires greater 

 Silvicultural knowledge than the creation of new plantations, 

 but it is, thanks to the growing crop, comparatively easy to 

 finance, and it comes less into conflict with other interests. 



We do not propose to over-burden this letter by entering into 

 any discussion of the agencies by which new schemes of 

 afforestation can best be accomplished. There are no doubt 

 certain districts where it may be necessary for the State to 

 undertake all the expense and risk of such schemes, if they are 

 to be accomplished at all. We hope that in many districts it 



