142 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a year. With regard to the question of afforestation as 

 providing suitable work, for the unemployed, the Commission 

 has reported that " They have no hesitation in asserting that 

 there are in the United Kingdom at any time, and especially 

 in winter, thousands of men out of work for longer or shorter 

 periods, who are quite ready and able to perform this or the 

 higher class of labour." Here, however, their opinion is 

 diametrically opposed to that of the Irish Forestry Committee, 

 who were unanimous in stating that afforestation would not 

 prove a direct remedy for the chronic state of unemployment 

 from which Ireland has for years been suffering, though they 

 pointed out that any extensive scheme of planting must 

 indirectly help to ameliorate the condition of the working- 

 classes. The exact terms in which this clear Irish statement 

 was made are as follows : — 



The question of promoting forestry as one of the means of dealing with 

 what is called the problem of unemployment, having been brought to our 

 notice, we think it right to state our opinion on this question. It is, 

 emphatically, that forestry cannot be considered as a specific for curing the 

 evil which is commonly understood when this problem is spoken of, that 

 of the chronic disemployment, especially in large cities, of large numbers 

 of people belonging to different trades or callings. That the promotion 

 of forestry on an adequate scale will provide a great deal of employment 

 is unquestionable, and that is one of its principal advantages to a country. 

 But such employment would be employment naturally forthcoming from 

 the plantations and woods for the agricultural population in their vicinity, 

 and it would be employment for an industrial population, more or less 

 rural, forthcoming from the industries and commerce which may be 

 developed in connection with the conversion and handling of the forest 

 produce. This sort of employment cannot be provided on a large scale at 

 once. It must be developed with steadiness and system, and above all it 

 must be on sound economic lines. 



Our planting season is from auttnnn to spring ; and while 

 the formation, tending, and harvesting of timber-crops will 

 increase the amount of employment given to the rural 

 population, it seems hardly reasonable to expect that planting 

 work on wind-swept waste lands in autumn and spring can be 

 suitable for the elderly, the weakly, and the least skilful and 

 energetic, who must always be the first to be thrown out of 

 work, and the last to become re-employed in our large 

 industrial centres. But as a practical commentary on what 

 the second city in the British Isles thinks of this remedy for 

 the unemployed it is noteworthy that on 23rd February 1909, 



