REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE OX FORESTRY. 1 43 



or four assistants may be required. The assistants will probably 

 be young men and, in any case, will not require high salaries, 

 as their work will consist in ascertaining the facts upon which 

 the advising oflScer has to give his judgment. When the bulk 

 of the ground has been overtaken, the staff may of course be 

 reduced, though it is impossible to devise working-plans which will 

 not require revision from time to time on account of windfalls, 

 pests, changes in the demand for timber, and other causes. The 

 chief advising officer appointed for this purpose will, no doubt, 

 be also the principal adviser of the Government in any schemes 

 of aflForestation it may decide to undertake or assist in Scotland. 

 Unless a Board of Agriculture for Scotland is created, with 

 a Forestry Department, it may be found convenient to place the 

 advising officer under the supervision of the Demonstration 

 Forest Board, but he should not be otherwise officially attached 

 to the Demonstration Forest. 



25. Other Measures. — We limit ourselves to the three definite 

 proposals outlined above, because we believe that they can and 

 ought to be carried out at once. But we are unable to expect 

 any appreciable extension in the area of private woodlands — 

 and we are even doubtful whether a contrary tendency can be 

 checked — unless the State can offer direct encouragement to 

 planters by some such means as — 



{a) The advance of capital at a reasonable rate of deferred 

 interest (interest to accumulate until the crop is 

 realised) ; and 

 (b) An amendment of the law aflFecting the taxation of 

 woodlands to Estate and Succession Duties, whereby 

 a private forest, approved for the purpose by the 

 State, would be reckoned as a separate estate,^ and 

 possibly charged at a lower rate. 

 Aid of -this nature could only be given on condition that the 



' By the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, exceptioDal treatment is given to 

 timber, trees or wood, as compared with that accorded to property in general, 

 bjr exempting them from the pajrment of duty so long as they remain 

 unconverted into cash. One need for fiirther relief consists in the fact that 

 at present the v^ue of the timber and woods apon an estate is aggr^jated with 

 the valae of other properties apcm it for the purpose of determining the value 

 of the whole estate for death dntj- (Appendix vi ). Hence, by planting on 

 a large scale, a proprietor may render the remainder of his estate liable to 

 a higher scale of death duties, although for a generation the income from the 

 estate is actually reduced by the planting operations. 



