104 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



These forests give constant and healthy employment to a 

 permanent staff of looo forest workers, and produce a crop of 

 timber that yields an average annual net income of just over 

 14s. per acre. What fairer retribution could there be than that, 

 when the time comes, Germany from her vast reserves should be 

 called upon to supply timber to make good all that she has 

 ruined ? This solution, so far as regards the devastated areas, 

 would be a great help, and would also serve to bring down the 

 price of timber in this country after the war, and thus make 

 building as a commercial proposition a slightly less difficult 

 problem than it is, with everything at the present inflated prices. 



The vast importance of timber as a national asset has never 

 been realised in this country except by a little band of enthusiasts, 

 who have received little encouragement from the Government in 

 a matter where some form of State control and support is 

 essential, to enable the work to be carried out on a large enough 

 scale and in a sufficiently systematic manner to ensure ultimately 

 an annual crop yielding a regular return. It is obvious that a 

 laird who is just able to keep his old family place, and who foresees 

 that his son will inevitably have to sell it, cannot be expected to 

 embark on a planting scheme from which there can be no return 

 to speak of for at least sixty years if he plants softwood, or 

 for anything up to 300 years if he plants oak or other hardwood. 



What is the present position in regard to forestry in Scotland 

 and the supply of home timber? The Royal Scottish Arbori^ 

 cultural Society has been in existence for sixty years. During 

 this period the Society and foresters generally have consistently 

 and on every possible occasion urged the economic importance 

 of a national system of afforestation, and the necessity for a 

 continuous supply of useful kinds of home timber at a reasonable 

 cost. As recently as last July the Society addressed a resolution 

 to the Government urging that, as all the old and now familiar 

 arguments had been greatly strengthened by events since the 

 war began, steps should now be taken to prepare schemes of 

 afforestation with a view of giving employment to returned 

 soldiers and sailors and, at the same time, tackling this great 

 national problem in a large way. 



Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, who has all his life been an 

 enthusiastic student of forestry and a profound believer in its 

 value to this country if done scientifically in large enough areas, 

 states that his larch plantations on the Novar estate in Ross-shire 



