140 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



land, tlie houses being erected from time to time as more labour 

 is required. We venture to express the hope that steps may be 

 taken in this direction at Inverliever. 



If a Board of Agriculture for Scotland is created, as provided 

 in the bill now before Parliament, and includes a Department of 

 Forestry, the proposed trial-forests would presumably fall under 

 the direction of that Department. Otherwise, we suggest that 

 these forests might be under the general supervision of the 

 Demonstration Forest Board, and might be at first under the 

 special superintendence of the ^Advising forest-officer whose 

 appointment we recommend (see 24). There will be no difficulty 

 in carrying out the work of planting. However deficient the 

 Scots working foresters may be in the knowledge required for the 

 care of a forest in its later stages, there is an ample supply of men 

 who would be quite competent to perform the initial part of the 

 work and to tend it for the first eighteen or twenty years. 



We have dealt with this proposal first and at some length, 

 because its omission from the programme of the Development 

 Commissioners causes us some anxiety. These trial-forests 

 appear to us an essential part of the foundation of any 

 practicable scheme of afforestation. If private enterprise could 

 be relied upon to ])rovide similar object-lessons, these 

 ventures would not be necessary ; but we believe that, even 

 with the encouragement suggested below, private enterprise is 

 certain to move very slowly until the State affords some 

 practical demonstrations of profitable forestry and of the 

 benefits which it confers on the districts aflforested. 



22. Three steps recommended. — The steps following on the 

 establishment of a Demonstration Area which we recommend 

 for the promotion of silviculture in Scotland are as follows : — 



(i) A flying survey to ascertain the best forest sites and 

 their api)roximate extent. 



(2) The appointment of an Advising forest-officer with at 



least one assistant. 



(3) The establishment of a limited number of State trial- 



forests. 

 The last of these proposals has already been fully explained. 

 A few words are required in explanation of the two others. 



23. P'lyiir^ Surrey. — The survey we contemplate would not 

 aim at locating every acre of plantable ground in Scotland. 

 It would aim at discovering the best forest sites and their 



