200 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The main outstanding requirement of a Scotch demonstration 

 area has received much attention from the Commissioners, who 

 were not altogether satisfied with the scheme put before them by 

 the Scottish authorities. They are aware of the importance of 

 this question, and hope that a scheme may shortly be submitted 

 which can be accepted by all parties concerned. . In Ireland 

 where there is little likelihood of private enterprise in this 

 direction, it has been thought best to devote to State afforestation 

 the funds available. 



" As regards afforestation, the Commissioners pointed out last 

 year that the amount of the Development Fund, in relation to 

 the claims upon it, does not permit the Commissioners to 

 contemplate afforestation upon any large scale, unless it is 

 possible to draw also upon other funds. ' Excluding the 

 purchase of land, it may be taken that ^lo per acre is the 

 minimum expenditure usually required before the planting 

 operations begin to produce returns. As the total amount 

 guaranteed to the Development Fund is ;^2, 900,000 for 

 numerous purposes, of which forestry is only one, it will be clear 

 that the afforestation of even 100,000 acres solely from that 

 Fund is scarcely feasible unless its resources are considerably 

 augmented.' For this reason, two main lines of action were 

 proposed ; to assist the purchase and planting of experimental 

 and demonstration areas of, perhaps, 5000 acres, in different 

 districts in England and Wales, and to make loans to local 

 authorities already possessing suitable land. The Commissioners 

 are consulting with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on a 

 scheme for acquiring the first experimental area, and they have 

 during the past year succeeded in settling the difficult questions 

 arising out of the most important application for a loan to 

 afforest land which has been made by a local authority. A loan 

 of ;^2S,ooo to the Liverpool City Corporation has been recom- 

 mended, for the afforestation of a large part of its water- 

 catchment area at Lake Vyrnwy. The Commissioners hope that 

 now that the first advance of this kind has been settled (it is 

 always the first case of a new problem which causes trouble and 

 delay), it will serve as a precedent for other great municipalities. 

 In Scotland the Commissioners are conferring with the Board of 

 Agriculture on the question whether arrangements can be made 

 to lease land for afforestation from private landowners, on the 

 basis of a division of the ultimate proceeds; they have been 



