REPORT ON A VISIT TO SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH FORESTS. 2035 
Although, under ordinary conditions, the regeneration of a forest 
will be sufficiently assured by the exercise of a discreet control over 
the grazing, something more than this must be done if it is desired 
to turn the land to the best possible account. It is therefore a 
matter of regret that nothing has yet been done to place forest 
management in Scotland on a sound economic basis. 
The productive powers of the soil and of the climate have been 
made use of by able and intelligent planters, who have thereby 
enabled nature herself to accumulate a considerable store of timber ; 
but all this wealth is exposed to the carelessness of some and to 
the ignorance of others, until the hand of a forester manages it 
properly and places it on the only sound economic principle of all 
agricultural and forest property, @ constant annual revenue and a 
constant improvement in production. 
It would certainly not be fair to hold the Scottish foresters re- 
sponsible 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 methodical 
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.? 
In wishing Scotland, then, a hearty farewell, we venture to pre- 
dict for her forests a great and prosperous future. It does not 
need that one should be a very great prophet to predict this for a 
country where the oak and beech, the Scots fir and larch, flourish 
with equal vigour, and where the Abies Douglasii, Abies nobilis, 
and Abies Menziesii, the Sequoia, and the cedar, form mighty 
trees, in company with the Arawcaria and various exotic shrubs, 
which only languish miserably under the climate of Paris. 
Before leaving this country, however, we would fain add a 
word of advice, for the moment appears to us a propitious one for 
deciding on the future welfare of the forests, which, owing to the 
rapidly increasing value of timber, runs great risk of being com- 
promised. Ordinary fir timber now fetches 8d. per cubic foot, 
larch is worth nearly double that amount. We ourselves visited a 
forest of Scots fir which, at this rate, would be worth £120 an acre, 
1 A deer run, over unproductive land, has just been let to an American for 
nine years, at the fabulous rent of £10,000 per annum. 
