REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 1 39 



of Other rural industries) and until a trained body of foresters 

 becomes available." We agree in that opinion, but we do not 

 believe that investigation and education, however complete, will 

 by themselves clear the way for afforestation. 



The Commissioners appear scarcely to have realised the 

 peculiar difficulties which confront afforestation in Scotland, 

 especially in those districts on which it would confer most 

 benefit, and where, owing to the low value of land, it would be 

 most likely to prove remunerative. 

 The chief existing obstacles are : — 



{a) Economic difficulties concerned with rating, wintering, 

 the occupation of the adjoining ground too high or 

 too poor to plant, and the reconciliation of silviculture 

 with existing interests generally. ^ 

 (d) A popular and natural prejudice against afforestation, 

 which focusses attention on the immediate disturbance 

 to the few and disregards the benefits which silvi- 

 culture would confer on a much larger population, 

 (r) A widespread belief, based on the experience of ill- 

 managed woods, that silviculture cannot be made to 

 pay in Scotland. 

 We are convinced that nothing short of ocular demonstration 

 will overcome these obstacles. A central Demonstration Area 

 will do something in this direction ; but in this area, unless it is 

 a very large one, the place of a resident population will be 

 largely taken by the apprentice-students. Demonstration is, 

 moreover, required in other and more remote parts of Scotland. 

 A few cautious trials in actual afforestation appear to be an 

 indispensable preliminary to State afforestation on a large scale. 



21. CreatiuH of State Trial Forests. — We therefore strongly 

 advise that the creation of a limited number of trial State 

 forests should be included among the preliminary steps to be 

 taken before any far-reaching scheme of State afforestation is 

 considered. They should be placed partly in districts which are 

 now almost devoid of inhabitants, and partly in districts where 

 there is a population in the poor condition of crofters who are 

 making a bare subsistence and would benefit from the oppor- 

 tunity of employment. In the former case, provision should be 

 made from the outset for settling a permanent population on the 



^ See J\e/'ort on Afforestation in Scotland, pul)lislied by the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society, 191 1. 



