86 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
his labour it will not be in this world, where the delay in 
collecting his returns is so considerable. There is the uncertainty 
as to whether his schemes will not end in every kind of way save 
that which he intended, supposing that they survive the dangers 
which greatly beset trees of tender years. He may feel uncertain 
as to whether his successor will get a footing in the timber market 
which has been handed over with so rare a thoroughness to the 
foreign grower. There are the tolls on transport which the 
wisdom of Parliament has so largely left to the discretion of 
railway corporations. There is the conservatism which has been 
so slow to apply machinery to the manufacturing and transport of 
grown timber. Further, there is the modern tendency to think 
more of oneself and less of ancestor or posterity, which results in 
increased observance of the precept that “ilka herring should hing 
by its ain head.” The depression in landward rents has probably 
strengthened the respect accorded to this homely testimony to the 
expediency of rational selfishness. There are the claims of sport, 
and so forth. With all this, it will not be easy to stimulate 
owners to make larger outlays. I adhere, therefore, to the theory 
that any considerable extensions of woods is not possible in our 
time unless undertaken by the State. Still, even without press- 
ing men to plant more, we can at least impress upon them the 
advantage of planting and selling well. 
There is, indeed, no occasion to throw stones at either pro- 
prietors or foresters; both have had to work under methods 
almost wholly empirical, so, rather giving all credit for active, if 
desultory effort, let us draw the necessary conclusions from the 
results before us, and then let us drive these conclusions home. 
It is clear that whilst Scottish land management has been con- 
spicuously successful in extracting returns from agricultural land, 
it has less to show to its credit in the forest area. If it has 
sufficed for agricultural production, it is proved to be unable 
to grapple effectively with timber growing. And this is not 
surprising, for a crop which takes one or two centuries to gather 
is not managed like a field of turnips. The farmer reaps many a 
crop during his tack, the forest survives many a master before it 
is brought low. Think what a farm would be like if it had a 
fresh tenant once a month, each taking his own line without 
giving much thought to what had been done, to what he was 
doing himself, or to what was to be done after him—yet such 
a system would hardly be a caricature of much of our timber 
