Afforestation Schemes. 377 



otherwise it is desirable to make an experiment in 

 afforestation as a means of increasing employment 

 during periods of depression, and how, and by whom 

 such experiment should be conducted. 



In 1909, the Royal Commission on Afforestation and 

 Coast Erosion reported at length, proposing the re- 

 forestation by a special Commission of nine million 

 acres of waste land at a rate of 75,000 or 150,000 

 acres a year to be acquired by purchase an elabor- 

 ate plan, which so far has remained without result. 



The government, although various committees have 

 recommended it, has remained also callous in respect 

 to educational policy, except that, in 1904, the Com- 

 missioners of Woods and Forests instituted a school 

 (one instructor) in the Forest of Dean for the educa- 

 tion of woodsmen and foremen. 



As illustrative of the government's peculiar attitude 

 to forest policy in general, we may note a curious 

 anachronism, namely the act of 1894, which relieves 

 railway companies from liability for damage from 

 locomotive fires, if they can prove that they have 

 exercised all care, although traction engines cannot 

 offer this excuse. 



The first attempt to secure educational facilities 

 dates to 1884 when a chair of forestry was established 

 in the Royal Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, 

 an institution designed to prepare for service in India 

 purely. Through private subscriptions, another chair 

 of forestry was instituted in 1887 at the University 

 of Edinburgh, and several agricultural colleges, notably 

 that of Cirencester, as well as the Universities of 

 Cambridge and Oxford, had made provisions for 



