14 



to help, and I hope I shall be able to be present. I think if we 

 select a good centre, we shall find many interesting places all 

 round. It is a great thing to be able to see mistakes as well as 

 good points, and we have got plenty of both. We are doing 

 our best, and we will be very glad to have the opinion of others. 

 We will be glad to show them what we have been able to effect 

 in spite of economic and other difficulties. We shall now be 

 glad to hear what Lord Lovat has to say to us." 



Work of the Forestry Commission. 



Lord Lovat. — " I think, perhaps, you might like to know 

 exactly what we are doing in forestry, especially in Scotland. 

 This year our State forestry programme, which we are carrying 

 out according to the regular schedule given in the Recon- 

 struction Committee's report, is up to date both as to the area 

 planted and the aquisition of land. We are like many other 

 departments at the present moment trembling under the Geddes 

 axe, and we really do not know exactly where we are going to 

 stand next year. At the present time for this year's actual 

 planting season, aided by a considerable proportion of the 

 Unemployment Grant that we are applying to State forestry, we 

 shall plant something between 13,000 and 15,000 acres, which 

 is considerably more than our programme. You would, of 

 course, be more interested in the question of private forestry and 

 what we have been able to do for that. As the Chairman has 

 pointed out, the grant to private owners and corporate bodies 

 who wish to afforest, which the Reconstruction Committee of the 

 Cabinet thought essential in 19 15, was, by legislative action 

 made impossible, and landowners and corporate bodies found 

 the difficulty of keeping the accounts necessitated by the Forestry 

 Act, made the ^2 grant offered not worth accepting. Under 

 the Fund for Unemployment, we were given a much freer hand, 

 and the results are eminently satisfactory, firstly, from the point 

 of view of meeting unemployment, and secondly, on the question 

 of actually getting areas planted. I would just like to say, if I 

 may, that this question of getting our land afforested, is one on 

 which we can never insist too strongly. The woods of Great 

 Britain are devastated to an extent which I am sure the majority 

 of people in this country do not realise. Our Divisional 

 Officers and Assistant Commissioners, and the Commissioners 



