§ Mr. Welshasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimates he has of (a) unsold transplanted forest trees and (b) seedling forest trees which have been deliberately destroyed in the past year as being surplus to requirements; and if he will also give an estimate of the monetary values involved.
§ Mr. William Ross1,850,000 transplants and 255,000 seedlings at a combined estimated valuation of £9,500 were destroyed by the Forestry Commission in the planting season 1974–75. One survey by the trade, covering some 75 per cent. of the private sector, indicates that over 6 million transplants and more than 9½ million seedlings were known to have been destroyed by August 1975, and estimates that a further 4 million or 5 million were destroyed in nurseries not covered by the survey; but no valuation of these is available.
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§ Mr. Welshasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give figures showing transplanted forest trees and stocks of seedling sales in each year over the past five years for both the Forestry Commission and private nurseries.
§ Mr. William RossFigures for sales of surplus seedlings and transplants by the Forestry Commission are as follows
Planting season (sales of seedlings (in thousands)) 1970–71, 594; 1971–72, 705; 197273, 214; 1973–74, 52; 1974–75, 113.Planting season (sales of transplants (in thousands)) 1970–71, 1,283; 1971–72, 1,669; 1972–73, 1,551; 1973–74, 998; 1974–75, 2,142.Information for the private sector is not available.