42 AFFORESTATION IN SCOTLAND. 



2. Officers appointed to Survey. 



3. District Officers in charge of groups of Forest Centres. 

 The officers of all three classes will be men who have been 



educated at the Universities, and have attained a recognised 

 standard of knowledge of silviculture in both theory and practice. 

 It is probable that the first two classes — officers controlling 

 Demonstration areas, etc., together with Survey officers — will 

 absorb most of the trained men immediately available. 



Here it is necessary to explain that the need for the third class, 

 that of district officers, will not arise during the early years of 

 afforestation, and for the following reasons : — 



1. The nature of the work in the first fifteen or twenty years 



will be simple and uniform, and it can safely be en- 

 trusted to men of the head forester class. 



2. At first the forest centres will be few and scattered, and 



such supervision and inspection as may be necessary 

 can be undertaken by officers of the first or second 

 classes. 



3. Forest areas of from 15,000 to 30,000 acres, requiring the 



control of a district officer, are not yet in existence. 

 Ample time will be given for the education and training of 

 district officers during the first fifteen to twenty years of the 

 creation of the forests, which thereafter only will begin to 

 need their supervision. 



Foresters. 



According to the scheme, one head forester will at first be 

 required for the 15,000 acres of the Fort Augustus Block. He 

 will have immediate control of three under foresters, one for 

 each subdivision of 5000 acres, and it is probable that at first 

 the Clerk of the Works and the estate workmen could be most 

 conveniently placed under his supervision. After fifteen to 

 twenty years, in consequence of the increase of the planted area 

 and the approach of the first thinnings, a head forester will be 

 required for each 5000-acre block. Men of the stamp required 

 for the initial work of afforestation, both as head foresters and 

 as under foresters, are already to be found in Scotland in sufficient 

 numbers to meet the immediate demand ; while, with the progress 

 of afforestation, the number of well paid situations will be largely 

 increased, and will attract an increasing number of good men 

 into the profession of forestry. If young and capable men are 



