THE INVERLIEVER STATE FOREST. 2$ 



tion of the Highlands as a commercial enterprise. That is 

 what Inverliever represents, and nothing more. It is but the 

 first step on a long road which will eventually lead to the 

 acquisition of several millions of acres for State forests. It is a 

 step that should be firmly planted, and for the next year or two 

 there is little to be done save to press on with the preliminary 

 organisation necessary to establish a regular Forest Plan for 

 these 12,000 acres. In connection with this undertaking, it 

 would be well to have a small Scottish Advisory Council whom 

 the expert in charge of the planting and planning could consult 

 about initiatory proceedings. As soon as Inverliever is fairly 

 under way — and no time should be lost — we shall have to 

 persuade the State to extend its possessions and to develop 

 larger and larger areas of suitable country. 



What we have to do now, as the Government refuses to allow 

 the question of landward technical instruction to be opened in 

 Scotland, is to take the matter into our own hands, and 

 unceasingly to insist upon the purchase of the demonstration 

 area which is so absolutely essential to any scheme of silvi- 

 cultural training. We need 10,000 to 15,000 acres, with at 

 least a couple of thousand acres of woodland upon it. Some 

 large estate might be acquired with a view to keeping only 

 what is needed, or else two or three small estates, forming a 

 group in the same locality, might furnish between them the 

 necessary specimens of mature and growing timber, together 

 with bare land for experimental planting and observation 

 forests ; or, better still, one estate might be acquired in the 

 Highlands for instruction in the growth and utilisation of 

 coniferous timber, and another in the Lowlands for the same 

 operations in hardwood : the Highlands having almost un- 

 rivalled advantages for the first product, and there being great 

 scope in the Lowlands for raising many most valuable hard- 

 woods. Inverliever, being almost bare, is useless for purposes of 

 instruction, invaluable though it is as being a new departure 

 in sound social and economic State policy. A demonstration 

 forest — soon to become the sphere of a properly equipped forest 

 school — is what we must now concentrate our energies on 

 securing with the least possible delay. It could be laid out at 

 little expense under a competent expert, and were land acquired 

 at the rates current of late years, there should be little, if any, 

 loss on the transaction. Eventually, of course, money would 



