6 TRANSACTIONS OK ROYAL SCOTTISH AKBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and tenants of sporting properties, and from sheep graziers and 

 flock-masters, but in my opinion both these should be over- 

 ruled. A grouse moor or a deer forest, and more especially a 

 rabbit warren, is about the most uneconomic use to which land 

 can be put, and such use should be confined to land which has 

 been proved incapable of anything else. Sheep grazing is 

 little better. It is the least intensive form of agriculture, and 

 produces less and gives less employment than any other form. 

 It is really only suitable on a large scale for newly settled 

 countries, and not for a highly civilised and intensively cultivated 

 country such as ours. Some one may say, Is not this equally 

 true of forestry ? and I at once answer that this is not so. On 

 land of the same quality it should produce, even at the low 

 prices at which home-grown timber has been sold in these 

 islands, at least double the value of produce per acre, while the 

 labour it requires is very many times as great. This may be 

 questioned, but if people will take the trouble to investigate the 

 facts for themselves, I think they will find that I am right. The 

 question of common rights — and this is also a matter of im- 

 portance, as in England and Wales, at any rate, a considerable 

 proportion of the aft'orestable land is common — will also have to 

 be carefully investigated, and where it can be proved that 

 forestry will give better results (from a national point of view) 

 than the uses to which the commons are at present put, authority 

 should be given by Parliament to use the common lands for 

 this purpose, paying, if necessary, such compensation as may 

 be found equitable. 



Now to come down to the concrete proposals I am suggesting. 

 It is almost impossible to deal with this subject in the abstract, 

 and I have consequently made use of figures, which, although 

 merely postulated, should not be found very far from the 

 mark. 



I have taken as a basis a grazing value for the land of is. 

 per acre, and a sporting value of 6d. There are thousands of 

 acres of land in the country which certainly bring in no more 

 than this, and which would grow timber most satisfactorily. 

 The timber value of the land need not be considered here, as it 

 remains with the owner, though in any scheme of State purchase 

 for the purpose of afforestation it is a very important question 

 and must be taken into account. It can also be assumed that 

 only land of good timber quality would be taken under such 



