REPORT OF THE ANNUAL EXCURSION. 211 



should not lose this opportunity of picking up information from 

 their seniors, for it was to the sound practical knowledge of our 

 foresters that we owed the results that had been achieved in the 

 past. Concluding, he urged the need for educating the people 

 of the towns in the advantages to the nation of a sound forest 

 policy. Mr George Leven, Bowmont, spoke of the curtailment 

 of the planting programme due to the recommendations of the 

 Geddes Committee, and challenged the argument put forward 

 against the Forestry Commission that it was acquiring land too 

 far from centres of industry. He pointed out that land else- 

 where was too valuable, and if it were taken for forestry would 

 give real cause for outcry. Mr Leven also pointed out that 

 the landowners had done much unaided before the war, and 

 now that they were no longer able to replant their war-felled 

 areas, it was only fair that the State should assist them. He 

 again raised the point that forestry was essential as a supple- 

 ment to small-holdings in any land settlement scheme for 

 ex-soldiers. Mr Adam Spiers emphasised the essentially fine 

 qualities of native Scots pine as a timber tree compared with the 

 exotic conifers, and alluded to the merits of the black Italian 

 poplar as a quick-growing and very useful wood. Mr J. H. 

 Milne Home drew attention to the lack of knowledge, even 

 amongst public officials, of our economic position with respect 

 to timber supplies. Before the war, he said, we imported 

 between 80 and 90% of our timber; owing to its bulk, 

 ' timber was costly to transport and should be grown as near as 

 possible to where used ; timber was a prime necessity and we 

 had to pay famine prices for it in emergency ; it required several 

 generations to grow, so must be managed on a carefully 

 prepared and continuously-applied policy ; Great Britain was 

 the greatest consumer, yet had the smallest proportion of land 

 under forest in Europe ; and the private owners had provided 

 almost the whole of the home-grown timber in the past. He 

 pointed out that owners were not now in a position to replant 

 the war-felled areas unassisted, that State forests alone could 

 not supply the nation's needs, and that the assistance of land- 

 owners was the cheapest way in the long run from the State's 

 point of view. He urged everyone to bring these facts before 

 the public so that they might realise the position they were in. 

 Mr G. K. Fraser, M.A., B.Sc, Marischal College, said that the 

 conditions for tree-growth in Perthshire, as the excursionists 



