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Board and also for your references to myself. I will convey the 

 suggestion that you have made to the Board, that they might 

 consider the possibility of giving a prize or prizes, or assisting in 

 some way to encourage the people to have proper working-plans 

 of their woodlands, but I may mention that we have already in 

 sight the appointment of three advisory officers in the three 

 districts of Scotland, and these gentlemen will be available to all 

 proprietors who wish to have working-plans prepared. I think 

 that is probably a better and more permanent way of securing 

 the proper management of planting in Scotland than perhaps by 

 offering an award for the working-plans of an estate, or for the 

 management of an estate, which is a somewhat unusual proposal. 

 In connection with the demonstration area, which I believe you 

 all have very much in your minds, I think it is best for me to 

 make a perfectly clear and frank statement. Some years ago it 

 was decided by the Development Commissioners and the Board of 

 Education for Scotland, that it was desirable to have a demon- 

 stration area, in fact that it was necessary to have a demon- 

 stration area, in which to establish a school for forestry 

 apprentices. An Advisory Committee was appointed to select a 

 site, and I think in 191 1, or early in 191 2, they made a very full 

 report, and that report you all know about. Then the Board of 

 Agriculture came into existence, and the Board of Agriculture 

 was asked to consider the whole question. The Board did 

 consider it, and the Secretary for Scotland asked some gentlemen 

 whom you know to assist the Board, and to advise them in the 

 selection of a proper place for the demonstration of forestry in 

 Scotland. The Committee searched the whole of Scotland, not 

 in a cursory way, but in a very thorough manner indeed. You 

 know how difficult it is to find an ideal place for the demonstra- 

 tion of forestry. You must of necessity have growing woods of 

 various ages. You should have healthy woods, also young 

 plantations, and you should have land that pertains as nearly as 

 possible to the general character of plantable land in Scotland. 

 That seems to me to be a short description, at all events, of what 

 a demonstration area should consist of. The Committee found 

 in Aberdeenshire land and woods that they considered in every 

 way suitable, and they so reported. The views of the Advisory 

 Committee have been confirmed by every reliable forestry expert 

 in Scotland. I know of no one who has been consulted about 

 that area who has said one word unfavourable to it. The Board 



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