2 AFFORESTATION IN SCOTLAND. 



general sum of knowledge on the possibilities of afforestation. 

 Vet notwithstanding the excellent work done by its members 

 and the interest it aroused in the country, the colossal schemes 

 advocated in the Report have roused the fears of public bodies 

 whose source of revenue, and of individuals whose means of 

 living, were bound up in the present uses of the land indicated 

 for wholesale afforestation. These fears were not unreasonable, 

 and they might easily be converted into determined opposition 

 towards any scheme of afforestation which is not founded on the 

 recognition of the importance of the interests involved. 



It is hoped that the following pages will tend to reassure 

 those who regard afforestation in the abstract with distrust and 

 alarm : and at the same time will show to those who are 

 concerned with the scientific aspect of forestry alone, how 

 existing rural industries are not necessarily incompatible with 

 silviculture. 



The aim of the writers throughout this Report has been to 

 avoid abstractions and to give a concrete example, on a small 

 scale, of methods which they believe are capable of application 

 to larger areas. 



Taking as the foundation of their proposals the existing 

 economic values of a single district, they deal, as fully as space 

 permits, with the various questions arising out of a local 

 afforestation scheme ; — to put it shortly, they aim at showing 

 how much of the land in the district could be, and how much 

 should be, afforested. 



In addition to this example of a single forest area, which 

 occupies by far the larger ])art of their Report, they have been 

 obliged to enter into some brief discussion of principles of wider 

 application. The very existence of a local scheme, as here set 

 out, pre-supposes a general scheme of which the local scheme is 

 designed to form a part, and from which, with regard to manage- 

 ment, training, realisation of forest products, control, etc., it 

 cannot be isolated even in imai/ination. 



GENERAL. 



A CENTRAL FOREST AUTHORITY: ITS FIRST DUTY. 



In the opinion of the writers, the initiative in any scheme 

 of afforestation must come from a Central Forest Authority 



