Forest Survey of Glen Mor 



AND 



A CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN PROBLEMS 

 ARISING THEREFROM. 



1911. 



Chapter I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A great deal of valuable evidence in matters relating to 

 forestry has been printed in the various Reports of Royal Com- 

 missions and Departmental Committees in the course of the last 

 twenty years. It is, however, a regrettable fact, and one which 

 those who gave their services to the inquiries would be the first 

 to admit, that no progress has been made in the task of collecting 

 and recording the data required for an accurate estimate of — 

 {a) the amount of land in the British Isles which is capable of 

 being afforested, and (/>) the proportion of such land on which 

 forestry would not only pay but would justify itself as the best 

 economic use to which the land could be put. 



These two questions, or rather two aspects of a single question, 

 lie at the root of the whole problem of afforestation, and until 

 they are finally disposed of all schemes, however perfect in theory 

 or carefully elaborated in detail, are of no practical value, based 

 as they must be on purely hypothetical grounds. 



In the absence of exact data, the estinaates of the amount of 

 land suitable for afforestation in Scotland given to and by the 

 Commissions, have varied between very wide limits; while the 

 second and more important aspect of the problem, its national 

 economic side, has received very little attention, nor indeed could 

 this be profitably considered until its first and simpler aspect 

 had been removed from the region of doubt and conjecture. 



To take one example only, the Report of the latest Forestry 

 Commission, originally appointed to inquire into the question 

 of Coast Erosion. This Commission undoubtedly added to the 



VOL. XXV. A 



