382 



NATURE 



[July 6, 191 6 



precautions being taken to secure the replanting 

 of the felled areas. The destruction of our wood- 

 lands, already much too small for our needs, is 

 alarming. The consideration now of some definite 

 forest policy, to be carried out immediately after 

 the war, is a pressing matter. 



Sir John Maxwell proposes a scheme for the 

 gradual planting of the better class of waste 

 land now included in sheep grazings and deer 

 forests. About 6,000,000 acres can probably be 

 profitably planted, of which 2,000,000 acres might 

 be undertaken during the next twenty years. This 

 is to be carried out in combination with the estab- 

 lishment of small holdings, the occupiers of which 

 will do the necessary work of planting in winter, 

 while attending to their little farms in summer. It 

 is estimated that 10,000 acres, which under sheep 

 or deer at present support ten or twelve families, 

 will, if the bulk be planted, afford direct support 

 to more than a hundred families. The dales of 

 northern England, the valleys of Wales, and the 

 glens of Scotland afford perfect sites for such 

 settlements. This forest policy, here so briefly 

 outlined, is based on an elaborate study, "The 

 Forest Survey of Glen Mor,^ made by Lord Lovat 

 and Captain Stirling of Keir, and published in 

 191 1 by the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. 

 This scheme of afforestation has the great ad- 

 vantage that it does not interfere in any way 

 with existing cultivation. 



The concluding article urges the immediate ap- 

 pointment of a small body, say three Forestry 

 Commissioners, to whom shall be assigned the task 

 of creating a definite area of forest within a definite 

 time. It will take at least two years to make the 

 necessary preparations, so that this new Commis- 

 sion, devoted to forestry and to nothing else, 

 should be appointed at once. About a hundred 

 forestry officers will utimately be required, who 

 would be trained in forestry for two years, partly 

 in France or Denmark and partly in this country 

 — young men with a good scientific education 

 to be selected, and "the temptation to employ 

 retired Indian foresters in these posts to be 

 resisted." 



Other immediate steps advocated are the survey 

 of districts suitable for afforestation and the selec- 

 tion of forest sites. The land is to be acquired by 

 purchase or perpetual lease — compulsion to be re- 

 sorted to and the price to be settled by arbitration 

 when terms cannot be otherwise arranged. The 

 forests should be 4000 to 10,000 acres in extent, 

 but not necessarily inside a ring fence, as a 

 forest may be composed of separate blocks (each 

 not less than- 500 acres in area) situated in the 

 same district. The necessary housing for the 

 foresters, woodmen, and labourers cannot be 

 undertaken while the war lasts ; but if men are to 

 be absorbed from the Army after peace is made, 

 temporary buildings, of which there will be no 

 lack, can be used. Many other practical proposals 

 are embodied in this comprehensive plan for the 

 economic establishment of State forests in Great 

 Britain and Ireland. 



NO. 2436, VOL. 97] 



SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA. 



A REVIEW, however cursory, of scientific 

 -^^ work in Russia during the past two years 

 must take account of two features of outstanding 

 interest and importance. One is the appointment, 

 on the initiative of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences of Petrograd, of a commission to in- 

 vestigate and report on the natural resources of 

 the Russian Empire with a view to their scientific 

 and practical development and utilisation. 



Stated in one bald sentence this may not appear 

 particularly impressive, but looked at through the 

 lens of imagination it is revealed as a stupendous 

 project with far-reaching aims and destined to 

 lead to incalculable results. The prime incentive 

 is the fact that in Russia, as elsewhere, the eyes 

 of the nation have been opened and attention has 

 been focussed on what was in times of peace 

 known to many, deplored by some, and passively 

 acquiesced in by all : the extent to which its 

 economic life has been honeycombed by the 

 greater energy, enterprise, and initiative of the 

 Germans. It is now realised that this economic 

 dependence, extending to many things which 

 might just as well have been supplied by native 

 industry, went far beyond the limits of a natural 

 and legitimate exchange of products between 

 neighbouring countries, and the Empire is firmly 

 resolved to make a determined effort to put an 

 end to an intolerable anomaly. Russia stands at 

 the parting of the ways, and we in this year of 

 grace are, it may be, witnessing the economic 

 birth of a nation. 



As may be supposed, the development of such 

 a comprehensive scheme to the point of efi"ective 

 utility has not been accomplished without much 

 discussion and some hostile criticism. One critic 

 "doubts if the time is well chosen for embarking 

 on such an ambitious enterprise when the strength 

 of the Empire is being taxed to the utmost by 

 this terrible war. The end proposed is highly 

 desirable, but . . . the programme is so enormous 

 that the preliminary steps alone will take years, 

 to say nothing of the long interval that must 

 elapse between scientific investigation and prac- 

 tical fruition . . ."; and he goes on to point out 

 many problems to the immediate solution of which 

 the Academy might in this crisis more profitably 

 apply its energies. However, the commission has 

 in a surprisingly short time got to work — the first 

 sitting took place only in October of last year — 

 and is issuing a series of monographs, several of 

 which have already been published, each written 

 by a specialist, dealing, by way of a commence- 

 ment, with the vast field, in many directions Un- 

 developed, in others lying fallow, of Russian 

 mining and metallurgy. 



The other item of interest is the convening of 

 a conference by the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 to consider the proposal to found a Russian 

 Botanical Society with its own official journal. 

 There is a great deal of botanical investigation 

 carried on in Russia by various institutions 

 scattered all over the country, but it is felt that 



