ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE MODEL FORESTS FOR SCOTLAND. 205 
game-coverts and to increase the beauty of their estates, have not, 
generally speaking, wished them to be managed on strict com- 
mercial principles, with a view to profit ; and thus, especially during 
periods of agricultural depression, funds for the improvement and 
extension of woodlands have rarely been available. Game, in 
one way and another, has had a powerful influence on the rural 
economy of this country, and inter alia it has been the means 
of inducing landlords generally to keep their woods less dense than 
is consistent with good sylvicultural practice. Unfortunately this 
tendency has been encouraged by the fact that the two timber 
trees which have received most attention in this country during 
the last century or more—the oak and larch—are intolerant of 
crowding, and the result has been that foresters have come to 
look upon an open (really over-thinned) condition of woods as a 
desirable feature under all circumstances, and with all species. 
This view has been responsible for much of the discredit into 
which our home-grown timber has fallen: for without normal 
density a plantation or forest cannot produce timber of first-rate 
quality. The greater attention recently given to improved 
methods of sylviculture, as enunciated in the class-room and in 
current literature, has doubtless had some influence in checking 
the tendency to over-thinning, but no amount of theoretical 
instruction can ever effect so much improvement as_ practical 
demonstration in a sample forest. Many foresters would readily 
modify their system of management in conformity with the 
principles of modern sylviculture, if they had the opportunity 
of witnessing the application of these principles in actual practice ; 
nor indeed would they be justified in changing their methods 
unless they had the opportunity of studying both the application 
and the results of other systems. 
On this subject M. Boppe says :— 
“Tt would certainly not be fair to hold the Scottish foresters 
responsible for the present regrettable state of affairs, for, though 
they have for the most part admitted the inefficiency of the present 
system, they are powerless to effect any improvement so long as 
the landowners and general public have not learnt to appreciate 
the manifold advantages to be derived from a regular and method- 
ical management. They have to struggle against many adverse 
interests and hindrances, such as grazing and shooting interests, 
questions of routine, pecuniary exigencies, and the fancies of 
sportsmen from all parts of the world.” 
