REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON AFFORESTATION. 1 87 



enterprise, especially one for which no machinery exists at 

 present. Even if the State has to do all the work, it ought to 

 begin cautiously. But with reasonable encouragement I believe 

 that landowners would undertake a great deal of the work at 

 their own risk. By reasonable encouragement I mean — 

 (i) A survey of the areas really suitable for silviculture ; 



(2) The creation of State forests (at least six for each of 



the three kingdoms), each forest to be a complete 

 "economic unit" where scientific silviculture and its 

 dependent industries could be studied, and where 

 foresters could be trained ; 



(3) The appointment of forest experts (one perhaps attached 



to each forest) whose duty it would be to advise 

 landowners on their plantations, and provide working- 

 plans at a reasonable fee ; 



(4) Relief of plantations from rates and taxes during the 



periods when they yield no income. 



I believe that these inducements (slight though they may 

 seem) would lead many landowners to plant on a large scale. 

 They would greatly reduce the risk of failure, which is at 

 present nearly always due to ignorance. Taken in conjunction 

 with the growing interest in forestry, and the extraordinary hold 

 this pursuit keeps on those who once take it up, they would in 

 my opinion work a great change. That change would of 

 course be hastened by the rise in the price of timber which the 

 Report prophesies with so much confidence. 



Much of the money now spent on elaborate and often un- 

 interesting gardens, unsuccessful home-farms, pheasant-rearing, 

 and other overdone accessories of a country place, would be 

 diverted by intelligent landowners into this more useful and 

 profitable industry. Their friends on Sunday afternoons would 

 find the nurseries and plantations less tedious than the green- 

 house and ribbon-border, and a welcome change from the 

 pheasant coops and shorthorns. 



I have said nothing about loans from the State to intending 

 planters. They do not seem practicable unless the State makes 

 itself responsible for the management of the forest. To meet 

 this difficulty Lord Lovat devised the scheme of partnership, or 

 dual ownership, between the landowner and the State, which he 

 laid before the Commission, but the proposal does not seem 

 tempting from the point of view of either partner. 



