A DEVELOPMENT GRANT. 5 



will not be necessary for the State to take the initiative, and 

 believe that reliable advice based on the actual experience of a 

 Demonstration Forest, well secured loans, and a reduction or 

 postponement of local burdens,^ would induce many proprietors 

 to undertake schemes of afforestation at their own expense, 

 and submit the management of their woodlands to State super- 

 vision. We would only observe at present that such schemes 

 are impossible in the absence of a responsible executive 

 authority. 



We believe that a sum of ;^io,ooo a year will be required 

 in Scotland to cover the cost of this programme as a whole 

 for seven or eight years, until all the preliminaries outlined in 

 this Memorandum are complete. At the end of this period 

 the Survey will be finished, the Demonstration Forest and Forest 

 School equipped, and the Forest Gardens in working order. 

 The charges remaining will be limited to administration and 

 teaching, together with any loss there may be on the capital 

 invested in the Demonstration Forest and Forest Gardens. 



As soon as the Survey is concluded, it will be for the 

 Commissioners to consider what resources they should devote 

 to the direct work or encouragement of new schemes of 

 afforestation. 



We desire, in conclusion, to offer the Commissioners every 

 assistance in our power. 



Signed on behalf of the Society, 



John Stirling-Maxwell, 



President. 



To the above the following reply, dated 22nd September 1910, 

 was received from the Development Commission : — 



Sir, — I. I am directed by the Development Commissioners 

 to acknowledge the receipt of your letter forwarding copies of 

 a letter from the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, on the 

 subject of expenditure from the Development Fund on forestry 

 in Scotland ; and to inform you that they took the Society's 

 letter into consideration at their meeting yesterday. 



2. They understand that the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries propose to submit at an early date an application for 



^ We believe it will be found in practice, that the provisions of the Finance 

 Act of 1909 are on the whole relatively favourable to afforestation. (See 

 Transactions, Vol. XXIII. page 133). 



