NOTES AND QUERIES. 213 



out that at the end of the war a large number of soldiers and 

 sailors who return may not be able to resume their former occupa- 

 tions and may desire to find outdoor employment and a comfort- 

 able home in the country, which, under present circumstances, 

 they would not be able to do, and that Afforestation — with which 

 might be advantageously combined Small Holdings and other 

 Rural Industries — if carried out on a considerable scale in 

 various centres, would afford suitable employment, under healthy 

 conditions, for a large and ever-increasing rural population. 

 The Society therefore, without repeating the now familiar 

 arguments in favour of Afforestation, all of which have been 

 greatly strengthened by events since the war began, respectfully 

 draws the attention of the Government to the urgent need of 

 immediate preparation for the emergency referred to, and 

 suggests that the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, as the body 

 charged with the care of Forestry in this country, should be 

 authorised to prepare schemes of Afforestation on the lines 

 indicated, and should be assured that adequate funds will be 

 provided to put those schemes into operation whenever the war 

 is over, so as to meet the needs of returning soldiers and sailors 

 and others who desire to settle upon the land." 



REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Chinese Forest Trees and Timber Supply. By Norman Shaw, B. A. 

 351 pp. with a map and 33 illustrations. Price los. 6d, net. 

 London and Leipsic : T. Fisher Unwin. 



This book is a useful compilation of facts derived from 

 correspondence or conversation with missionaries and others, 

 and from a large number of books and articles, of which a 

 comprehensive list is given. As a great part of China is still 

 unexplored by the foreigner, accurate information regarding the 

 state of its forest resources is not available, but on every side there 

 is evidence of centuries of neglect, waste and actual devastation. 

 Manchuria in the north contains large tracts of valuable forests, 

 and several provinces in the south-west have a considerable trade 

 in home timber, but upon the whole China imports one-third of 

 the amount of her timber consumption. In a section devoted to 

 "The Forest Problem," the writer describes the steps that have 



