194 TKANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH AKliORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



made in forestry, will say that we require such experiments as 

 much as they are required in any research work, and that we 

 must have a demonstration area. We require all the intelligence 

 in this room collected together, so that it may be of advantage 

 to the whole nation. I venture to think there is not a single 

 man here who does not on broad lines subscribe to every one of 

 these points that I have put forward. We may have these silly 

 little difficulties as to the particular place where this demons- 

 tration area is to be, or there may be some foolish points as to 

 how the money is to be advanced, or minor points concerning 

 education or policy, but these are small matters. On the big 

 points, we foresters of Scotland are agreed absolutely and entirely, 

 and I am glad to see our opinions are held by the experts who 

 are visiting this country on this occasion, 



" If we are agreed, and if private enterprise so far as we 

 can see has reached its limit, and I fear, speaking as a pro- 

 prietor with some knowledge, that it is much more likely to go 

 backward in the future rather than forward for reasons I 

 need not mention at the present time, we must see what action 

 we are going to take ; and I would venture to say in speaking 

 on the subject of a constructive policy and of how we are to 

 advance forestry in Scotland, there is one method which stands 

 out alone. What we have to do is to educate our politicians 

 and show them the driving force which exists behind this 

 movement in the country, and, of course, the advantages which 

 it offers to the rural dwellers of the whole of Scotland. I 

 think we have been apt to neglect in the past the question of 

 this education of our politicians. You all know the story told 

 at the time of the passing of one of these many Landholders 

 Acts that we have in Scotland. One gentleman came out of 

 Committee and asked someone outside to tell him what was the 

 'rotation of crops' that was being discussed in Committee. We 

 have had exactly the same thing in regard to our Forestry 

 Committee. We have a great deal of work to do in order to 

 bring up our average representative to anything approaching 

 the knowledge of each gentleman present to-day. As foresters 

 we must press home these points. The driving force of forestry 

 lies in the certainty that it is the cheapest, most effective and 

 most permanent method of getting the population back to the 

 soil. I am sorry the Chairman of the Board of Agriculture is 

 not here to-day, because I wanted to ask him one or two 



