92 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



impress upon the nation, including Government departments, the 

 need for giving greater attention to the production of timber at 

 home. The gradual transition from " Arboricultural " to 

 "Silvicultural" conceptions has been due, to a great extent, to 

 the efforts of this Society, and, in short, what little progress 

 has been made in matters relating to forestry, may fairly be 

 claimed as due to its persistent energy. To any one giving the 

 matter a moment's consideration, it should be quite apparent, 

 that in the absence of a responsible Department, this Society 

 should not discontinue its disinterested oversight of what it has 

 done so much to create. 



It is undoubted that, at the moment, home timber is urgently 

 needed, and it is more than probable that it will be in demand 

 for some years to come. If this is so, it is surely time that steps 

 were taken to find out how much our home woods would 

 systematically produce over a period of years. Taking Scotland 

 as a unit, Mr Sutherland stated at the annual meeting in 

 February last, that it had supplied far more timber of the kinds 

 in urgent demand than the other portions of the kingdom. 

 This, while quite indefinite, shows that a considerable amount of 

 timber has been utilised already. Evidence is not awanting in, 

 for instance, the central parts of the country, that large timber 

 areas are being rapidly denuded of their crops. Where these 

 crops have reached maturity this is probably quite a timeous 

 operation, but in the absence of any Governmental guidance or 

 control, there is more than a suspicion abroad that immature 

 areas are being exploited. If this is the case, it is surely the 

 duty of this Society to draw attention to what would be the 

 outcome of such a policy, or rather want of it, in the near future, 

 if continued. It is quite unnecessary, at this time and place, to 

 draw attention to the desirability of having a regular annual 

 output from a given area. Practical men know how difficult it 

 is to attain to this ideal in the case of an estate where there 

 are large gaps in the age-classes to tide over. It means the 

 sacrificing of a certain amount of immature, or the retaining on 

 the ground of over-mature crops, with the consequent serious 

 loss of increment in both cases. How serious a matter it might 

 be for the nation some years hence, if crops formed on right 

 bases thirty, thirty-five to forty years ago, are being cleared off 

 to any extent, we can little imagine. 



Mature timber ought to be made use of first, for every purpose 



