46 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
introduction of economic forestry on private estates. Another, 
and probably the one most readily recognised, is the financial 
side of the question. It is very rarely that a proprietor derives 
any pecuniary benefit from tree-planting during his own lifetime. 
If he is a natural forester—like so many Scottish landowners— 
it must always be to him a source of gratification to see young 
woods clothing what was once a bare hill-side or a bleak moor ; 
but it is only wealthy estate owners who are able to indulge in 
this form of recreation. When we consider what has been done 
on many Scottish estates during the last two centuries in the way 
of tree-planting, we might be tempted to be equally hopeful as 
regards the future; but we must remember that the financial 
condition and prosperity of landed estates are by no means so 
good as they once were. For a millionaire or capitalist with a 
taste for estate improvement, the afforestation of land is a healthy 
and highly cammendable means of employing spare capital. Such 
gentlemen might well follow the example of Mr Vanderbilt, who, 
upon his estate of Biltmore, in Carolina, has laid the foundation 
of a scientifically organised forest on the Continental principle, a 
feat which the Government of the United States, as well as other 
Governments, appear unable to accomplish as yet. But go to an 
average landed proprietor, whose broad acres include a good many 
barren ones, and explain, as forcibly as you can, the economic, 
philanthropic, hygienic, and esthetic importance of planting 
waste land, and wait for results, If the waste land in question 
is adapted for conversion into a game-preserve, planting of a kind 
(but not your ideal) may be indulged in to a slight extent; but 
you need not look for extensive forest-planting where farms are 
lying derelict, buildings are out of repair, and rents are little 
more than nominal. Any money invested in planting by a 
private estate owner is money for which he has no immediate 
need, and on which he expects no interest during the next 
twenty-five years. Such investments are not characterised by a 
close observance of those economic principles which guide the 
ordinary investor, and are regarded more as additions to the 
amenity of an estate than as interest-bearing speculations. Con- 
sequently such plantations are more frequently used for the 
preservation of game, and the supply of material for estate 
purposes, than regarded as timber-producing crops. 
But I may be reminded that the prospects of future planting 
do not comprise the whole question of British forestry, and that 
