120 The jFourna I of Forestry. 



The rent of land has increased 25 to 30 per cent, in Mid Lothian 

 and 20 per cent, in Linlithgow in the last 25 years. Fences, draining, 

 roads, and cnltivation by steam are shortly noticed, and the im- 

 portant item of " woods " and " nursery grounds " are treated with 

 curt recognition in less than a dozen lines containing nothing worth 

 quotation. " Farming, Past and Present," receives, as it deserves, 

 a lengthened description of much interest ; and the paper closes 

 with a glance at the "Other Sources of Industry" — mines, quarries, 

 manufactures, fishing and shipping interests ; rendering the report com- 

 prehensive enough, but the whole has been treated in such a manner that 

 it might easily have been extended to a goodly-sized volume with advan- 

 tage, and without at all exhausting the subject. 



In a full and very interesting report " On the Agriculture of the Counties 

 of Ross and Cromarty " James Macdoual, Aberdeen, treats the subject in 

 an able and perspicuous manner, giving a mass of details and facts well 

 worth the perusal of all interested in agriculture. Speaking of the woods 

 and forests, he says, " A premium is at present offered by the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society for a report on the woods and forests in Ross-shire, 

 and therefore many notes on the subject here would be out of place. It 

 may be remarked, however, that the breadth under wood in the county is 

 "s^x^ great, and that many thousands of acres have been added to it during 

 the past ten or twenty years. Wood seems to thrive exceedingly well in 

 the county, and is found to be a most remunerative speculation. One 

 instance of this may be given. A plantation on the estate of Tulloch was 

 recently disposed of, and the sum realized was equal to a rent of £2 per 

 acre for each of the forty years the wood occupied the ground. The 

 benefits conferred on a cold late district by plantations are known to be 

 considerable ; and in these days of dear labour and high prices for wood 

 the landed proprietors in some of the other counties in the north of Scot- 

 land would do well, both to themselves and the community generally, were 

 they to copy the good example shown in the way of planting by the 

 proprietors of Ross-shire. There is one little point, however, that the pro- 

 prietors in Ross-shire would do well to look to in the interests of their 

 valuable plantations. That little lively creature, the squirrel, is well 

 known to be a destructive enemy to young trees. It gnaws away at the 

 'leaders,' and in this way a single squirrel has been known to kill or 

 greatly damage no fewer than a dozen young trees in one day. Several of 

 the young plantations in Ross-sbire are swarming with these creatures, and 

 in their own interests we would advise the landed proprietors to combine 

 together and exterminate them. Singly, very little could be done, but 

 were the owners of all the plantations in the county to unite in their 

 destruction, their little foes would speedily disappear." 



With this suggestion we do not agree. Squirrels are like many other 

 wild animals, destructive to an injurious extent when their numbers are 

 excessive, but to " exterminate" them is not necessary to the safety of our 

 plantations. Keep their numbers within due bounds by all means, as 

 when numerous they can do a lot of mischief, but we trust that systematic 



