166 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
while the costs of supervision and maintenance would be propor- 
tionately higher on a small than on a large area. ‘Taking every- 
thing into consideration, a compact area of 1000 acres would be 
quite small enough to accommodate the number of species and 
systems of sylviculture necessary to give a fairly complete picture 
of scientific forestry on an economic scale. A larger area than this, 
on the other hand, would increase the initial cost aud working 
expenses of the undertaking, possibly without a commensurately 
higher yield or income, while large areas are not favourable to 
intensive forestry, which is always most economical on enclosed 
land. 
Condition of Ground when Acquired. 
We have already referred to the class of land in question as 
heath-covered, chiefly because it is from such land that the lowest 
agricultural returns are usually obtained. But we have also to 
consider whether the area should be in its original rough and 
unimproved condition, or whether it should be partially or entirely 
stocked with timber. If our area were simply intended for the 
benefit of a coming generation alone, and had no function to per- 
form during the next thirty or forty years, it would doubtless be 
cheaper and simpler to acquire a tract of waste land, and plant it as 
time, opportunity, or expediency allowed. But in such a case the 
land would be of very little value as a means of instruction to the 
present generation of estate owners or foresters. The introduction 
of a desirable system requires some recognition of existing wood- 
lands, for we cannot draw an arbitrary line between the plantations 
of the future and those of the present, and apply one principle of 
management to the former and another to the latter. Just as the 
inspection of a model farm is often of little assistance to a tenant 
farmer whose surroundings are totally different, so an estate pro- 
prietor probably regards scientific forestry as entirely out of place 
on his own estate, and we may pardon him if he fails to see at first 
sight how the ideal state of matters he reads of in text-books can 
be brought into touch with the state of his own woodlands, without 
revolutionary changes being made for which he is little disposed. 
If this scheme is to be of real service to the present generation, 
therefore, we must demonstrate the practicability of transforming 
existing plantations, with all their weak points, into an organised 
forest area, and to do this effectually we must start work under 
conditions similar to those prevailing on most estates which possess 
