REPORT OF THE DKPARTlvlENTAI. COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 13I 



is under the charge, or even the personal superhitendence, 

 of a fully trained forest-officer. Nine-tenths of them are 

 lamentably understocked, and what might be a great source of 

 wealth and employment is going to waste for want of the 

 application of scientific silviculture. 



Unless the State proposes to buy up private woodlands, it is 

 clear that the remedy for the present defects must depend 

 mainly upon their owners. There are, however, two means 

 by which the State can [)romote this much-needed change. 

 They are 



(i) By training working foresters to realise the need of 



expert advice ; 

 (2) By appointing trained forest-officers to give such advice 



at a moderate fee (see 24). 



The object of the educational system which we contemplate 

 will be to bring into existence a body of working foresters and 

 a body of forest-officers each qualified by their training to fulfil 

 their proper functions. 



13. Number of Fort' st Officers required in Scotland. — At present 

 there are no appointments of any kind for forest-officers in 

 Scotland, except the four lectureships attached to the University 

 of Edinburgh and the three agricultural colleges. Our scheme 

 provides for three officers in the Demonstration Forest. The 

 number of additional forest-officers that will be required in 

 future, apart from the demands of other parts of the empire 

 (Appendix V.), will entirely depend on the policy which the 

 Government and the Development Commissioners decide to 

 adopt. 



If the Government follows the suggestion made above and 

 further explained in section 24 — a suggestion which appears 

 to be in agreement with the policy outlined by the Development 

 Commissioners in their first report — and decides to create a 

 staff to give advice and assistance to those who desire to under- 

 take afforestation or to develop existing woodlands, one or 

 more additional officers will be required. The survey 

 recommended in section 23 may demand another. And when 

 any move is made in the direction of afforestation, either by 

 the State itself or with its assistance, one additional forest-officer 

 will be, roughly speaking, required for each 4000 acres fully 

 afforested. 



