264 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
direction is to obtain and publish complete information concern- 
ing—(1) what has been done, (2) what is being done, and (3) 
what is about to be undertaken in future, in the way of planting 
of wind-swept waste lands in Denmark and Prussia, the portions 
of Continental Europe where climatic conditions most closely 
resemble those obtaining throughout the United Kingdom. 
4. What can the Government be reasonably asked to do in the 
way of legislative amendments and administrative improvements so 
as to provide efficient machinery for the Acquisition and Planting of 
Waste Land by the State, and the encouragement of Planting by 
Private Landowners ?—State-planting and State-assistance to 
private planters (which would logically imply the right to 
exercise a certain amount of supervision and control) are really 
two separate questions, each worthy of individual attention if 
space and time permitted. But they may conveniently be both 
combined, because efficient departmental administration suitable 
for dealing with either case can easily at the same time be 
applied to the other. And certainly, if any national effort 
worthy of the name is to be made in either or both of the above 
directions, steps must first of all be taken to provide proper 
departmental machinery, because such does not at present exist. 
The simplest, most efficient, and most economical way of doing 
this would be (1) to further amend the Board of Agriculture 
Acts of 1899 and 1903, so as to constitute a Board of Agriculture, 
Fisheries, and Forestry, with a special Forestry branch under 
the direction of an assistant secretary, and (2) to abolish the 
Commission of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the 
Crown, by incorporating it into, and distributing its work 
between, the Board of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry and 
the Board of Works and Public Buildings (which was constituted 
in 1832 to perform certain duties previously belonging to the 
Office of Woods and Forests). 
At the first glance this may seem quite an unnecessary 
proposal, but examination will show it to be merely a move in 
the direction of efficiency and economy, and not a difficult 
matter to accomplish. The property vested in the Commissioners 
of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown consists of 
(1) woodlands and other portions of the ancient royal forests, 
and the minerals within the same, (2) agricultural estates, and 
(3) freehold house-property in London. Of these, (1) and (2) can 
be most efficiently and economically administered by a Board 
