CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT. 43 



chosen as under foresters, and are given opportunities for study 

 in the Demonstration area, at seasons when the work at their 

 own centres is practically at a standstill, they should be able 

 to qualify themselves for the higher position by the time that 

 a head forester is required for each 5000-acre block. 



Time required for Organisation. 



The natural order of progress in State afforestation may be 

 stated thus : — 



1. Establishment of Central Forest Authority. 



2. Demonstration areas. Education and Research. 



3. Surveys, general and detailed. 



4. Afforestation of Selected Centres, 



But once the Central Authority is in existence, there is no 

 reason why progress on the three latter lines of development 

 should not be made simultaneously. Survey work need not 

 wait for the results of education and research ; nor need 

 the commencement of afforestation be delayed until surveys 

 of the whole of Scotland have been completed. The writers 

 hold that such delay is unnecessary, provided always that the 

 amount of work undertaken is adapted to the numbers of the 

 staff immediately available. 



While they do not undervalue the immense importance of 

 silvicultural education, and the benefits to be derived from 

 it, they consider that there is no reason for postponing practical 

 work until the finished products of the new educational machinery 

 are ready to hand ; they are rather of opinion that, unless 

 practical work is commenced at tlie same time, the educational 

 machinery will be wasted in turning out highly-trained men for 

 whom little or no employment will at first be found in this country. 

 It is the writers' belief, that not only are enough men now avail- 

 able for the initial stages of afforestation on a reasonable scale, 

 but that a sufficient amount of the necessary experimental work 

 has already been done, and that the comparatively simple task 

 of collecting and tabulating the results of a great number of 

 most useful experiments, carried out by individuals, in planting 

 methods, choice of species, etc., is all that is needed to put the 

 Central Authority in immediate possession of a mass of reliable 

 information which Demonstration areas and forest gardens can- 

 not provide for many years to come. 



