2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In reply to the above letter, the following communication has 

 been received : — 



"Scottish Office, 

 "Whitehall, S.W., Sth November 1911, 



" Sir, 



" I am directed by the Secretary for Scotland to 

 acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st ultimo, and 

 to say that, while the Government are of opinion that it is not 

 desirable that the Small Landholders (Scotland) Bill should 

 itself provide that one of the Commissioners, or, to adopt the 

 phraseology of the bill, a member of the Board, should be 

 specifically appointed to take charge of forestry, it is their 

 intention, as has already been said, in the event of the bill 

 which is now before Parliament being passed into law, to 

 establish as an integral part of the administration of the Board 

 of Agriculture for Scotland, a Department of Forestry for 

 Scotland. This Department will be developed as the needs 

 of forestry extend and justify; and your Society may rest 

 assured that the head of this Department will be an officer 

 whose training and experience fit him for taking special charge 

 of this important work. — I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 



" (Sgd.) . John Lamb. 



"Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Bart., 



" President of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 



"19 Castle Street, Edinburgh." 



To this the Council has returned the following reply : — 



"19 Castle Street, 

 "Edinburgh, i,th December 191 1. 



" To the Right Hon. Lord Pentland. 

 " My Lord, 



" I was directed by the Council of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society, at its meeting on Saturday, to thank your 

 Lordship for your communication of 8th November, and to 

 express its warm approval of the important step which it fore- 

 shadows. (The Council has long advocated the establishment 

 of a Department of Forestry as an essential preliminary to the 

 orderly development of that industry in Scotland.) We ventured 

 to call your Lordship's attention to the question of allocating one 

 of the members of the Scottish Board of Agriculture to forestry. 



