84 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
4. There are the plant-growers. It has been often and 
eloquently declared when agriculturists are gathered together, 
especially after dinner, that the interests of owner and tenant have 
been, by the wise dispensation of Providence or otherwise, so 
wonderfully made and luxuriantly intertwined as to be indistin- 
guishable the one from the other. However that may be, the 
interests of nurseryman and forester are, if more independent, 
even less likely to clash. Their common interest lies in the 
maintenance and extension of the forest area and of arbori- 
culture generally, in the making of it popular and therefore 
profitable. It is said that nurserymen regard the practice of 
natural reproduction in forests as repellant. Experience, how- 
ever, does not show that natural reproduction diminishes the need 
for plants, but rather that anything which adds to the value of the 
forests, or to their area, will add proportionately to that of the 
nurseries. The better plantations pay, the more of them will be 
planted. Some foresters may grow their own plants as a matter 
of convenience rather than of cost, but the shrinkage of nursery 
area of late years gave cause for general concern, and we note the 
more recent extensions of it with satisfaction. Nurserymen are 
amongst the best supporters of advanced forestry, and theirs is 
probably the best-managed department of our business. 
These, then, are some of those upon whom we can rely in 
support of the work of this Society, and through whom we may 
expect to awaken some measure of public interest in the growth of 
trees, whether for beauty or for commerce, sufficient to prepare 
the way for a successful foray upon the Treasury. But these are 
not all, nor does everything depend upon Government grants. 
5. There is another important class to be considered, for of those 
interested in forestry, the Landowners can, if they like, do most 
of all. It is on them that we are entirely dependent for capital, 
whether in land or in money, though capital is with them less 
nowadays than it used to be. Forestry is far more dependent 
upon the lairds than is agriculture, yet it is the last which has 
been first in their favour. The proprietors of Scotland who have 
done so much to stimulate practical scientific agriculture have 
done practically nothing for commercial forestry. They have 
distinguished themselves in forming the most beautiful pleasure- 
grounds in the world; that, however, is rather landscape garden- 
ing than forestry. Almost every proprietor who emerges from 
the hunting age is an hereditary—often a leading—agriculturist, 
