and had really planted something like 1500 or 1600 acres more 

 than was intended in the Acland Report which suggested the 

 creation of the Forestry Commission. We continued to expand 

 our programme every year until the Geddes axe fell upon us ; 

 then it became quite impossible to carry out the programme. 

 The amount of money put at our disposal for each year was 

 considerably reduced, and our programme fell short of what 

 was intended in the original Report. We are at this moment, at 

 the end of the last planting season, just where we would have 

 been if the Acland Report had been carried out exactly as laid 

 down. 



"This year, however, we shall fall a little bit behind the 

 programme laid down in that Report unless we are asked to 

 increase the rate at which we are planting, which we can do, 

 because we have a certain number of plants in hand prepared, 

 not for the carrying out of this particular thing, but in case we 

 were called upon, as we have been during the last two years, to 

 provide work for the unemployed, either under the Commission 

 or by means of grants to Local Authorities and private 

 individuals. In previous years there has been a little difficulty 

 about the plants, but this year we have a certain number of 

 plants on hand, and we are, therefore, in a position to expand 

 our programme if we are called upon to do so. 



"We have planted in Scotland just a little over 10,000 acres 

 since the Commission was instituted, and we shall plant this 

 year in Scotland, with any luck, something like another 

 4000 acres. We can expand, as I say, a little, but the great 

 trouble at present is want of continuity. Many times in this 

 room, and in different places where this Society has been, it 

 has been pointed out that forestry poHcy must have absolute 

 continuity. If there is no continuity, and it is done in leaps 

 and bounds, it is badly done, and if only the political governors 

 of this country and the Treasury would bear that in mind, and 

 not suddenly cut down the programme, and at another time 

 suddenly wish to expand it, the work would be much more 

 efficiently done. It is easy for anyone who knows about forestry 

 to see that if you have suddenly to expand your programme, you 

 must take plants too young or those that would otherwise be 

 rejected, and if your programme is suddenly curtailed your 

 plants get too old and have to be thrown out on the rubbish 

 heap. That does not appeal to the politician, but it does very 



