MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, what steps have been taken to carry into effect the recommendation of the Departmental Committee of 1902 on British Forestry; and whether any communication has been addressed to corporations and municipalities relative to the Committee's recommendation as to the desirability of planting with trees the catchment areas of their water supply.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) 1. The Departmental Committee recommended that the Alice Holt Woods in Hampshire should be made available as soon as possible to serve as a demonstration area in England. This has been done. A full report as to the past history, present position, and future management of these woods has been prepared by Dr. Schlich at the request 161 of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and the recommendations made therein are being systematically carried out. A certain amount of experimental planting has already taken place. Copies of Dr. Schlich's report, illustrated by plans, can be had on application to the Commissioners. It was also recommended that a suitable estate should be purchased in Scotland to serve as another demonstration area. Several properties have been brought to the notice of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, but, for various reasons, they did not appear suitable for the purpose. Two additional properties are now under consideration, and as soon as a suitable estate has been found the Treasury will be approached with a view to purchase. 2. The recommendation of the Departmental Committee that lecturers should appointed at Oxford and Cambridge has to some extent been met by the augmentation of the salary of the Sibthorpian Professor of Rural Economy at Oxford, who is now the Professor of Forestry Botany. It is understood that an estate will be placed at his disposal for demonstration purposes. 3. A sum of £500 a year, which was placed by the Treasury at the disposal of the Board for the establishment of lectureships in forestry, has been allocated to the University College of North Wales at Bangor and the Armstrong College at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The results have been most encouraging. A considerable number of students have been found desirous of taking a full collegiate course of study, good classes of practical foresters and others have been conducted at selected local centres, while there has been a constant demand on the part of land-owners for expert advice from the lecturer. 4. A school for working woodmen has been established by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in the Forest of Dean, and is now in the third year of its existence. From eighteen to twenty youths are receiving instruction. 5. Legislation would be necessary to remove the inequality in the levy of the estate duty on timber, and it has not been possible hitherto to take any steps in this direction. The matter has, however, not been lost sight of. 6. The Railway Fires Act, 1905, which comes into force on the 1st January 1908, will give some 162 protection to owners of woods against loss by fire caused by sparks from locomotives. 7. Special inquiries were made in 1905, with a view of ascertaining the extent of land now occupied by woods in Great Britain, and the results have been published in the Agricultural Returns for that year. The three categories suggested by the Departmental Committee were adopted. 8. With the object of ascertaining the districts in which local authorities have developed the catchment area of their water supplies by afforestation, the Board communicated with the Local Government Boards for England and Scotland, who sent out a circular letter to all local authorities asking for a Return. The results were tabulated and published in the journal of the Board of Agriculture for November 1904. A leaflet on the relation of Woods to Domestic Water Supply was published in January 1904, and a large number of copies have been issued. The Board are keeping the various recommendations of the Departmental Committee steadily in view, and they hope to be able from time to time to proceed further in the directions indicated in their Report.