DISCUSSION ON FORESTRY IN SCOTLAND. I 25 



" The proposal of the Commissioners as it stands is one that no 

 ordinarily prudent landowner could consider on his own account, 

 and one that trustees could not consider. 



" The plan suggested is one that could only be applied on a 

 scale so small as to have no importance at all in any large scheme 

 of atforestation. It would be confined to those cases in which 

 the landowner is actually receiving no rent for the land to be 

 planted, in practice to areas at present under woodland for which 

 the landowner is receiving no grazing rent. 



" It is not for me to seek to probe into the minds of those who 

 have put forward a proposal so manifestly inadequate. I see 

 nothing to be gained from an expedition into the region 

 of hazard and conjecture, which might lead us perilously close 

 to the barren desert of party politics, a forbidden land — and 

 happily so — to our Society. 



" While advocates of afforestation are bound to criticise 

 adversely proposals which seem to them incapable of wide 

 application in practice, we are also bound to insist strongly on 

 the conditions essential to success. 



" Even at the risk of repeating myself, I would once more insist 

 on the necessity (i) of a careful study of existing economic 

 conditions, and the adjustment of the scheme so as to cause a 

 minimum of disturbance, while giving full compensation for 

 unavoidable loss of rent; (2) an earnest endeavour to bring 

 about co-operation between all classes and interests affected 

 in a scheme that will in the long run benefit the district, but 

 must in its early days cause a certain amount of dislocation 

 and friction. 



" There is no royal road to afforestation, nor do I for a moment 

 believe in or advocate any such heroic measure as wholesale 

 purchase of land by the State. 



"While it cannot be denied that there may be instances in 

 which State purchases may play a useful part in afforestation, 

 my belief is that these instances will be few and limited in 

 practice to those areas, rare in Scotland, which are capable of 

 being planted as a whole, and that the great bulk of aftbrestation 

 must be achieved by the State and individuals working in 

 co-operation either as partners or under a lease, and that the 

 terms and conditions under which afforestation will proceed must 

 be of the most flexible nature and adjusted with due regard for 

 the variable local requirements. 



