48 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
derive from them as a reduction of capital than as interest upon 
it, and forget Mr Gladstone’s somewhat ambiguous axiom, that 
“the best way to preserve timber is to cut it down.” 
It is probably to this indifference on the part of the owner 
that the existing condition of British forestry is due. The most 
enthusiastic reformer may expatiate without success on the 
deplorable condition of a proprietor’s woods, and the enormous 
advantages of economic forestry, and its influence upon our 
industrial welfare. The proprietor listens, thanks him for the 
information, believes he is quite right, and before parting asks 
his advice regarding the planting of a bit of game-cover, or the 
preservation of an old tree—Stc itur ad astra. Old customs and 
ideas die hard, and the promotion of forestry in this country not 
only involves the teaching of new systems but the abolition or 
modification of old and deeply-rooted prejudices. This is the 
task which this Society presumably set itself at the outset, and 
we are justified in inquiring—“ With what result has British— 
or if you like—Scottish forestry shown any improvement of late 
on that of fifteen or twenty years ago? Are proprietors taking 
a greater interest in tree-planting, and the production of first- 
class timber? Are they more eager than of old to get the best 
advice on the management of their woods!” These are questions 
of vital importance to British forestry, which is entirely in the 
hands of private estate proprietors. What is the all-absorbing 
topic in rural life in this country but agricultural depression, 
and what is its effect upon landed estates? So far as can be seen 
at present, the general tendency is in the direction of a reduction 
all round in acreage, in working expenses, and in outlay of 
capital, and all this is hardly conducive to the advancement of 
scientific forestry on private estates, which demands, if not a 
greatly increased expenditure, at least a certain sacrifice of the 
pecuniary interests of the present to those of the future. One of 
the first indications of an embarrassed estate is generally an 
excessive felling of timber, which is seldom followed by com- 
mensurate planting operations, and when this is the case woods 
soon fall into a neglected state. It is only on large estates, again, 
where the acreage of woodlands is proportionately large, that an 
efficient staff of workmen can be maintained for the various 
operations necessary to keep the condition of woods up to a 
proper standard. On a small estate the woods are attended to 
when time and opportunity permit, and this often means that 
