6o TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



12. The Afforestation Conference. 



On the joint invitation of the Board of Agriculture and the 

 Local Government Board, a Conference on the subject of 

 Afforestation assembled in London on the 25th June 1907, under 

 the presidency of the Right Hon. the Earl Carrington, President 

 of the Board of Agriculture, who was supported by the Right 

 Hon. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board. 

 The Conference was called together in consequence of the 

 receipt of the following resolution from the Association of 

 Municipal Corporations : — 



" That this Council expresses its opinion that the time has 

 now arrived when the question of afforestation should be 

 seriously considered by the Government, and that it should 

 be referred to the Law Committee to take steps for urging 

 upon the Government the necessity for initiating afforestation 

 schemes." It was attended by a large number of persons 

 interested in the subject of afforestation, and a verbatim report 

 of the speeches and papers will be found in the official Report 

 (No. 98), printed at His Majesty's Stationery Office, price 6d. 

 This Report occupies 49 pages, and we here give a short 

 summary of its contents, for the convenience of those among 

 our readers who may be prevented by lack of time or 

 opportunity from reading the original. 



After a short speech by Lord Carrington, stating that the 

 object of the Conference was to examine the proposals of the 

 Association of Municipal Corporations, and to elicit opinion 

 as to the course which should be adopted both by the Govern- 

 ment and by local authorities to carry out the desired objects, 

 Mr John Burns made a sympathetic speech on behalf of the 

 Local Government Board, in the course of which he gave it as 

 his opinion that afforestation had been too optimistically 

 regarded as a means of giving immediate occupation to the 

 unemployed, while at the same time he believed that ultimately, 

 by the establishment and encouragement of rural industries, 

 it might prove of great value in this respect. He further stated 

 that, as an individual, he was greatly in favour of the establish- 

 ment of a School of Forestry. 



A sentence or two may be here quoted from the Report : — 

 " I think," said Mr Burns, " the time has arrived either when 

 the State or the municipality, or both combined, might give free 



