AFFORESTATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



NATIONAL FORESTRY. 



IT is quite three years since we had very forcibly brought 

 home to us some of the consequences of our national 

 neglect of forestry. The fact that we had for many years 

 been paying away to foreign countries immense sums 

 which ought to have been circulating in our now depopu- 

 lated areas is only one of these consequences. More 

 immediately serious was the awkward situation in regard 

 to our timber-supplies a situation which aggravated high 

 prices, hampered our war industries, and put an extra 

 strain on shipping. If we have not learned our lesson 

 now, we are not likely to learn it at all. 



Much has been done in the past with a view to awaken- 

 ing the nation and the Government to the urgent claims 

 of forestry ; yet little impression seems to have been made. 

 Commissions have been appointed, and have issued reports 

 in favour of a national scheme ; committees have deliber- 

 ated, and also reported favourably; a Scottish Board of 

 Agriculture has been established, with the development of 

 forestry in Scotland as one of its special official objects ; 

 the Development Commissioners have been acting for 

 several years, with the advancement of forestry in the 

 kingdom (among other things) as a specified purpose. 

 And what are the practical results ? Until very recently, 

 when a certain amount of preparatory work and planting 

 has been done, the actual afforestation has been negligible. 



