8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



2. A Scheme for Establishing a National Industry of 



Forestry.^ 



I. Some Criticisms by Mr R. Munro Ferguson, M.P. 



To the Hon. Editor of the R.S.A.S. Transactions. 



Sir, — In the last issue of the Transactions you invite discussion 

 upon an article with the above title, which is welcome as a very 

 clear and ingenious " financial scheme to attract Treasury 

 support for afforestation," and indeed these words would be 

 a more accurate title for this extremely able and well-informed, 

 if unconvincing, article. It deals wisely with many features of 

 the situation, whilst the financial proposals set forth are as 

 sound as anything of the kind is likely to be. 



In the first place, it is necessary to reiterate the funda- 

 mental fact that silviculture differs from all other industries, 

 in this respect, that the man who plants never sees his money 

 again, nor does he reap the profit of his investment. 



This obviously discourages private enterprise, and indicates 

 that, in the absence of Methusaleh, the State is the only 

 investor who can both put in the money and take it out again, 

 and provide that continuous good management without which 

 there cannot be sound financial results. The absence of these 

 essential elements of commercial enterprise discourages invest- 

 ment by the individual, and points to the State as being the 

 only owner who is in a position to carry on successfully this 

 great industry. The very different fates of agriculture and 

 silviculture under private ownership, sufficiently illustrate what 

 a determining factor the absence of immediate return and the 

 uncertainty as to future management is in the life of an 

 industry. "^ Scottish agriculture, under the fostering care of 

 the landowners, and thanks to their expenditure on agricultural 

 equipment, is the finest in the world — while silviculture is for 

 all practical purposes non-existent. 



Further, the dangers of the scheme are — 



1. That it will distract an already distracted Treasury from 



the true solution of our difficulties, and prolong already 

 intolerable delays. 



2. That it ignores and sets aside (i) the Departmental 



Forestry Report of 1902, and the subsequent concen- 

 tration of competent opinion in favour of a large 

 ' See Vol. XXI. p. 135. 



