FOURTH REPORT OF THE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONERS. 1 99 



33. Fourth Report of the Development Commissioners 

 for the year ending 31st March 1914. 



The following extracts are taken from the above report as 

 being of special interest to Scottish foresters : — 



" Fourteen applications falling mainly or entirely under the 

 heads of forestry and afforestation were received during the year 

 1913-14. The total of the advances for which application was 

 made amounted to ;^22 1,000. The Commissioners recommended 

 advances of ^91,114 in all. 



"The measures which can be taken by the State to promote 

 forestry and afforestation fall obviously into two main divisions ; 

 first, provision for improved education, research, and technical 

 advice; and, secondly, afforestation by the State itself, or the 

 giving of pecuniary assistance by the State to other bodies 

 desirous of afforesting land. These two lines of work cannot be 

 dissociated from one another; forestry education, for instance, 

 implies in this country a certain amount of actual afforestation 

 work, both for the practical part of teaching and as a demonstra- 

 tion of the lines on which local authorities and private owners 

 should proceed ; afforestation on any considerable scale requires 

 a trained staff of foresters and woodmen, which is scarcely yet 

 available here in any numbers. 



"Under the first head (education, research, etc.) the Develop- 

 ment Fund already supports a scheme to provide instruction and 

 advice at five centres in England and Wales (Oxford, Cambridge, 

 Cirencester, Bangor, and Newcastle) and provides also for 

 research work and minor experiments. During the year this 

 scheme has been supplemented by the completion of arrange- 

 ments for the utilisation of Dean Forest and the adjoining 

 woodlands as a demonstration area, at an estimated cost to the 

 Fund of ;£^2)iToo for capital expenditure, and ^1700 for 

 maintenance. In Scotland, considerable provision was made 

 during 1912-13 for higher forestry instruction at Edinburgh 

 University, by a grant to cover a period of five years. During 

 the past year the financial and other questions relating to the 

 appointment of advisory officers have at length been settled, and 

 the Commissioners have agreed to an advance of ^1500 for the 

 salaries and expenses of advisory officers to be attached to the 

 three centres of education at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. 



