24 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be required for the equipment of the forest school, from which 

 there would be, if no direct return, an incalculable public 

 advantage, because, without it, neither the State nor the private 

 owner has any chance of succeeding. These are points which 

 need little discussion here, for upon them we have all been for 

 long agreed. 



Another consideration which must now be dealt with is the 

 establishment of a Scottish Board of Forestry. Such a body, 

 or else a Commission under the Board of Agriculture, is needed 

 at once to schedule land suited to silviculture, more especially 

 in the Highlands. This area should be defined and marked 

 off, not only with a view to drafting a comprehensive scheme 

 of State afforestation, but — and this would be its first duty — 

 to safeguard the public interest in all land suited to silviculture. 

 Stress was laid on this point so far back as the appointment of 

 the Deer Forests Commission by Sir George Trevelyan, of 

 which I refused the Chairmanship, because the Secretary for 

 Scotland could not be induced to extend the scope of the 

 inquiry to include afforestation, which I regarded as the most 

 important subject that could come under review. Things have 

 moved on a little since then, but even at this moment the 

 Small Landholders Bill renders an immediate investigation 

 more urgent than ever, since sporting lands and grazings, once 

 subdivided, and farms having fixity of tenure, would, so far 

 as these may be suited to afforestation, be definitely lost to 

 our prospective forest area. The great mistake made in 

 Ireland at the time of the Land Purchase Acts, in excluding 

 from their scope all reservations for forests, should not be 

 repeated here. A great opportunity was then lost for the 

 creation of national forests in Ireland. A Departmental 

 Committee on Irish Forestry is now proceeding to consider — 

 (i) The present provision for State aid to forestry in Ireland ; 



(2) The means whereby, in connection with the operation 



of the Land Purchase Acts, existing woods may be 

 preserved, and land suitable for forestry acquired for 

 public purposes ; and 



(3) The financial and other provisions required for a com- 



prehensive scheme of afforestation in Ireland. 

 But it is to be feared that under present conditions there 

 is little scope for afforestation in Ireland. Important, how- 

 ever, as silviculture might have been to the prosperity of 



