86 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Highland villages, on the other hand, greatly need the intro- 

 duction of small industries, such as are so usual in Norwegian, 

 Swiss, and other hamlets, and there is frequently ample water- 

 power to turn saw-mills, lathes, and any machinery that is 

 necessary. The introduction, or rather the reinstatement, of 

 mills in the Highlands is now being eagerly taken up in many 

 districts to grind corn into meal in the manner formerly nearly 

 universal, and to put the old water-mills into order for this 

 purpose, towards which the Agricultural Board are prepared 

 to grant loans of three-quarters of the cost, in a limited number 

 of cases. 



It appears as if a great opportunity now offered — viz. 

 to erect mills capable of dealing at will, not only with corn, 

 but as timber-sawing mills, and for driving lathes and other 

 special plant, as may be desired. The corn only arrives at 

 certain seasons, and there would presumably be ample 

 opportunity and leisure to utilise the water-power available 

 for several purposes in the one mill. The matter appears not 

 only interesting and promising, but ripe for decision and action 

 at the actual moment of writing. 



Since writing the above I learn, from enquiry of a furniture 

 maker on a large scale, that stocks of birchwood are always 

 kept by members of his trade and used up ; also that birch is 

 quite useful for the handles of many tools. 



8. Floods and Defective Drainage as Affecting 

 Food Production. 



By Alexander Ross, 

 Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 



In my address as President of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, on the 2nd November 19 15, I dealt with some 

 economic questions, particularly pointing out and emphasising 

 the national loss sustained in consequence of the large areas 

 of land which are subject to floods, and to being waterlogged, 

 chiefly owing to the defective state of our rivers and subsidiary 

 streams. 



At the time these statements did not seem to attract attention, 

 but now that the question of food supply has been forced into 



