152 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



acre, plus sheep acclimatisation value of about other 5s. per 

 acre, or £^2^ 5s. in all. 



3. Labour and Supervision. — Even supposing that the 

 ^2,000,000 a year recommended by the Commission to be 

 spent on acquiring and planting land could be provided, it 

 could not be economically spent at present owing to the 

 Committees' recommendations in 1887 and 1902 not having been 

 acted on. Within the last five years small schools for practical 

 foresters have been formed at the Forest of Dean for England 

 and Wales, and at Avondale (Co. Wicklow), for Ireland ; but 

 as yet no such school has been established in Scotland, and the 

 only places where more or less systematic outdoor instruction 

 in woodland work is there given are private estates such as 

 Scone and Murthly, in Perthshire. In this respect Scotland is 

 deeply indebted to landowners like the Earl of Mansfield, 

 Mr Steuart Fothringham, Mr Munro Ferguson, and some 

 others, who have done much to advance the education of forest 

 apprentices. But for a great national scheme of planting a 

 large number of well-trained practical foresters will be required, • 

 and such training has not yet been organised to meet the 

 demand that would then be made for men of this class. And 

 the labour difficulty will be enormous. Already, in Argyllshire, 

 planters and nursery hands receive 3s. 4d. a day, and suitable men 

 are exceedingly scarce. Special arrangements would have to be 

 made for planting colonies, while the men engaged would need 

 extra close supervision. No class of work can more readily 

 lend itself to scamping than planting ; and if the planting be 

 badly done, then the Commission's sanguine financial forecast 

 becomes utterly impossible of realisation. 



Nothing is yet known as to the intentions of Government 

 with regard to either the Irish scheme, or that recommended 

 for Great Britain. In the House of Commons, on 17th 

 February 1909, Mr Burns, President of the Local Government 

 Board, said concerning the latter that — 



One of the reasons why the Government did not include afforestation in 

 the King's Speech was, that the Report was only just submitted to them, and 

 was to be read in connection with the Report of the Poor Law. It was a 

 subject that did not require legislation of an elaborate sort, but it did require 

 a great deal of money, and the Government were not justified in including 

 any proposals in the King's Speech in regard to it until they knew what 

 money the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be able to place at their dis- 



