208 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
for planting ; but it may safely be assumed that the existing woods, 
plantations, and nurseries, which cover little more than 900,000 acres, 
might be increased to at least four or five times their present area. 
And such extensions would no doubt for the most part be effected in 
the Highlands, the more remote and poorer part of the country, where 
the increase of wealth and prosperity accompanying the extension 
of woodlands is already very noticeable, and where many hundreds 
of thousands of acres might be rendered as productive under timber 
as much of the agricultural or pastoral lands in England, which 
yield a nett income to their owners of not more than 5s. to 10s. per 
acre. We may, therefore, feel reasonably confident that the intro- 
duction of remunerative sylvicultural methods will not only lead 
to an important improvement in the quantity and the quality of 
the produce of our existing woodlands, but that the area under 
forest crops will be largely added to, and that we shall thus 
become less dependent than we are at present on supplies coming 
to us from foreign countries. 
WHY WE REQUIRE MopeEt Forssts. 
There seems no reason to doubt that the owners of waste lands 
which might be suitably and profitably afforested would be much 
more willing to plant them than they now are, if a practical object- 
lesson could be presented demonstrating the methods by which a 
fair return on their outlay could be assured; and the sooner such 
a demonstration can be provided, the better for the landowners _ 
and for the country at large. 
We require a Model Forest then, first of all, that we may be in 
a position to offer to proprietors, their wood managers and foresters, 
a practical proof that the principles of modern economic forestry, as 
taught and practised in France, Germany, India, and other countries, 
are equally suited to our islands. It is, of course, well understood 
that the application of these principles does not involve hard 
and fast methods of treatment; and that French and German 
foresters regulate important matters, such as the density of plant- 
ing and the degree of thinning, in accordance with the objects 
in view and the conditions prevailing in the locality they are 
dealing with. We want to show that improved methods of treat- 
ment, under our own conditions of soil and climate, would lead 
to results similar to those obtained in other countries where the 
scientific principles of economic forestry have long been followed. 
Dr Schlich, in his address on Forestry Education, says,—‘‘ We are 
