70 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



going, and since then they have been making very extensive 

 purchases themselves to meet their own war requirements. 

 The result is that the demand for home supplies has been greatly 

 in excess of the normal supply, and that we can only meet it by 

 drawing upon our capital and sacrificing, for the purposes of the 

 present moment, woods which might have been expected to 

 supply a regular amount of timber for many years to come; 

 Exactly the same thing happened in the Napoleonic Wars a 

 hundred years ago. When Napoleon established the Continental 

 system, as it was called — the system by which he hoped to cut 

 us off entirely from commerce with the Continent of Europe — 

 there was a great demand for home supplies. It was at that 

 time that many of the old Scottish pine forests were cut down 

 bodily, but as they were indigenous woods, some of them have 

 fortunately been able to spring up again by natural regeneration, 

 but I am afraid that that is not likely to occur in the case of 

 the woods that are being cut down to-day. It is hoped that 

 these circumstances may incline the Government to pay far 

 more attention to forestry than it has done hitherto, and you 

 will agree with me, I think, that it must be our business to see 

 that the subject is not neglected. It has not been altogether 

 neglected of late years, though the progress has been far slower 

 than the sanguine among us might have hoped, but every year 

 there has been a certain amount of progress to record. 



"Some provision has now been made for forestry education 

 and research. The salaries of lecturers are being paid, advisory 

 officers have been appointed to whom we can look for advice in 

 all questions of forest management, and though we have not yet 

 got a demonstration area in Scotland, we are assured that the 

 money is ready and waiting to be applied as soon as the ideal 

 estate can be discovered. 



" All these, of course, are very essential preliminaries, but 

 now that the preliminaries are so well advanced, we ought 

 to be within sight of the main business, to which they all lead, 

 the business of national afforestation. I hope it will not be long 

 before we may be called upon to discuss, not as a mere matter 

 of theory but for a definite and practical purpose, the best 

 methods by which national afforestation can be carried out in 

 this country. But, in the meantime, there is a question which 

 requires more immediate attention. It has been referred to by 

 Mr Galloway in the report which he has read to us. I mean 



