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REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE FORESTS OF SCOTLAND, 17 
animal life, with the exception of mountain sheep, while means of 
communication by road are few and far between. The experience 
is still more intensified when the traveller is a forester or a political 
economist, for the remnants of forests (¢.g., on Rannoch Moor), 
and the presence of stumps in the bogs, remind him that this 
extensive area was once covered by wood. 
At the present time such land gives a return only through its 
scanty pasturage and its sporting rights. The ground is not 
infrequently cleared of sheep in order to encourage the game, 
which consists for the most part of grouse and red deer; but the 
latter animal, judging from the antlers which I had the oppor- 
tunity of inspecting, is of such diminutive proportions that a 
stag from the poor pine forests of Germany would appear like 
a giant beside it. 
The annual grazing and sporting rent from such areas appears 
to fluctuate between sixpence and half-a-crown per acre. The 
question then comes to be whether forestry offers the opportunity 
of improving the revenue from such land. 
The favourable climate of Scotland, and the comparatively easy 
slopes of its mountains, make it unnecessary to undertake forestry 
operations for the improvement of the climate or the fixation of 
the soil upon the hills. The ease with which coal may be got in 
that country, and the facilities which it enjoys—at least for the 
present—for the importation of timber from abroad, make it 
unnecessary that planting should be undertaken either for the 
purpose of providing a supply of fuel or of structural timber. 
The possibilities of the afforestation of the waste lands of Scotland 
must therefore be regarded entirely from the financial point of 
view. Whether forestry will be financially successful or not will 
to some extent depend upon whether the question is regarded 
from the national point of view, or from the standpoint of the 
owner of the woodlands for the time being. 
Regarded from the point of view of the national weal, the 
question comes to be whether forestry offers the possibility of 
permanently increasing the nett revenue from the land. In my 
opinion this question must undoubtedly be answered in the 
affirmative, at least so far as the better classes of soil are con- 
cerned, and for the following reasons. Assuming that the Scots 
fir is employed, with a rotation of eighty years on soil of the 
third class, and, further, allowing 2} per cent. on the invested 
VOL. XV. PART I. B 
