TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 675 



remedy for want of woodlands introduced in Scotland by the Jacobean statute, 

 which compelled the landlords not only to plant wood and forest and make hedges, 

 but also enjoined them under penalties to see that each of the tenants planted one 

 tree for every marke of land. Nor, indeed, can much be said of the success of the 

 compulsion. And I do not imagine anything could be gained nowadays by the 

 method adopted in Scotland in the middle of last century by the ' Select Society,' 

 as it was called, of oflering a premium to farmers who planted the most trees 

 within a specified time. That such processes were deemed necessary is interesting 

 as showing how old standing has been the recognition of the want of sufficient 

 woodland area in the country. At the present time there are those who would 

 reverse, as it were, the process of the old statute, and who look to the acquisition 

 by the State of large areas of waste land, and their atlbrestation by it, for the 

 solution of this forestry question. It is, no doubt, a wise policy which encourages 

 private enterprise to deal with the details of industries, and only invokes State aid 

 as a directive and controlling force when its need can be clearly shown. That 

 there is need for State aid in the case of forestry I do not deny, but it is not 

 required to the extent just mentioned. 



I unhesitatingly say that the State ought to treat the forest areas now in its 

 possession in a reasonable and scientific manner, instead of leaving them as objects 

 for the finger of scientific scorn. They might be made, in part at least, models of 

 the best forestry practice. It is no use to dispute with the sentiment and taste 

 which have prevailed in making the New Forest what it now is, and it is hopeless 

 to expect a unanimous verdict as to the destiny of State woods and upon the 

 method of treatment to which they should be subject. We have had recently, in 

 the lively discussion regarding the management of Epping Forest, an illustration 

 of how large is the number of people who have views upon the subject of the 

 management of woodlands, and how the majority of them, if they had their way, 

 would, through ignorance, defeat the very object they desire to accomplish. We 

 must be prepared in any proposal for utilisation of" State forests to incur the 

 opposition of those who regard all scientific handling of woods as vandalism, 

 although I do not know that forestry in itself involves a want of recognition of the 

 beautiful, or dulls the feelings which a sylvan landscape invokes in the minds of 

 those in touch with Nature. It is allowed there are areas in our State forests 

 sacred by many memories, possessing a grandeur and picturesqueness with which no 

 hand, whether of forester or landscapist, would venture to meddle. But, on the 

 other hand, there are tracts which without damage to the natural beauty, and 

 without depriving in any sensible degree the people of their privileges of recreation 

 they prize so much, might be and should be dealt with as forest cultivated on 

 scientific principles. These might serve as instruction areas, showing all that is 

 best for the information of foresters. The creation of some such experimental 

 teaching stations in State forests is one of the essentials for forestry in Britain. I 

 would go further and say that the area of State ownership should be increased to 

 the extent of the establishment of forest stations, of an acreage sufficient to allow 

 of a satisfactory rotation, in other parts of the country as centres of instruction. 

 There have been, as you are aware, proposals for the aHorestatiou of some of the 

 three million and more acres of waste land in the Highlands of Scotland capable of 

 growing timber, and we await with some interest the ]-eport of the Deer Forest 

 Commission, which has taken evidence on the subject. If, as hns been suggested 

 may be possible, aSbrestation is attempted through any system of State-aided 

 planting, an opportunity would be aflbrded for securing what would be of so 

 much advantaare to the country. Beyond this system of model experimental 

 stations, the State ownership of forest in Britain does not seem to me to be 

 necessary in the cause of forestry. 



Replying recently to Sir John Lubbock in the House of Commons, the President 

 of the Board of Agriculture, after recounting what his Board is now doing for forestry 

 in Britain, added : ' I shall always be glad to receive and to consider any suggestion 

 for the increase of sound technical knowledge on this subject.' Well, now, 1 have 

 a suggestion to make. In a practical science like forestry ' an increase of sound 

 technical knowledge' can only be possible when facilities for practical instruction 



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