AFFORESTATION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 1 39 



19. Afforestation and Timber-Planting in Great Britain 

 and Ireland.^ 



By Dr J. NisBET. 



During the last twenty-five years, four Committees and 

 Commissions have been appointed by Government to deal 

 with the question of Forestry in the United Kingdom, and 

 with what is now, by rather a lax use of the term, spoken of as 

 Afforestation, when timber-planting is really meant. In 1887, 

 a Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended 

 the establishment of a Forest Board and Forest Schools in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, and pointed out that, " apart 

 from any immediate pecuniary benefits there would be 

 considerable social and economical advantages in an extensive 

 system of planting in many parts of the kingdom, especially 

 on the west side of Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland. 

 This subject is one of great importance, and well worthy of 

 early consideration." No action was taken in the specific 

 directions recommended by this Committee. 



The second inquiry was made in 1902, when a Departmental 

 Committee of the Board of Agriculture was appointed " to 

 inquire into and report as to the present position and future 

 prospects of forestry, and the planting and management of 

 woodlands in Great Britain." Reporting in 1903, they urged 

 "immediate and effective provision for bringing systematised 

 instruction within the reach of owners, agents, foresters, and 

 woodmen ... as the first requisite in any project for the 

 improvement of forestry," and recommended that " additional 

 facilities for instruction be afforded," and also that " assistance 

 should be looked for from local authorities, societies, and 

 individuals interested in forestry and technical education." 

 And they also made another very important recommendation, 

 that Government "should take steps to compile a statement 

 of areas presumably suitable for afforestation in Great Britain." 

 But though they took note of " the great area of waste land in 

 these islands which might be afforested," they expressly 

 refrained from advocating " any general scheme of State forests 

 under present circumstances," . . . and merely remarked that 

 "Once adequate provision for training is made and the 



^ Reproduced, by permission, from ihe yo/trtia/ odhe Society of Arts. 



