FARM FORESTRY. 1 25 



communities to co-operate in the planting of fruit-producing 

 trees such as cherry-plum, apple, walnut, etc., along public 

 roads as is done in some other European countries. 



An entirely mistaken idea as to the relationship between 

 forestry and agriculture, and as to how each in its proper place 

 and in its own way could contribute to the well-being of the 

 nation undoubtedly appears to have existed among some of 

 the earlier writers on rural economy, and as past experience is 

 the best guide for future procedure I may be allowed to quote 

 from an article in the Farmers Magazine for March 1811 "On 

 the Planting of Scottish Firs and other Timber Trees," which 

 was written by my grandfather, J. Borthwick, Esq., of 

 Crookston : — 



"It is astonishing to find that the planting of trees in this 

 country should be violently reprobated by so able an authority 

 as Mr Arthur Young; and it is not improbable that the 

 influence of so respectable and intelligent a writer has con- 

 tributed much to its discouragement. That I may record his 

 opinion, the following extract is given from the Annals of 

 Agriculture.'''' 



He then gives the following extract from Young's paper in 

 the Annals of Agriculture : — 



" ' It seems, at first sight, a little singular that the conversion 

 of the soil to a state of nature should be esteemed so great 

 an improvement as to call for premiums to reward those who 

 are the readiest to take these retrograde steps towards changing 

 the corn, cattle, and sheep of Britain into the savage robe of 

 an American wilderness. Every acre we have in England, if 

 securely enclosed, would in the process of no long lapse of 

 time, become a forest; it is the residence of the people, with 

 their flocks and herds, and prosperity in their train, that proves 

 the destruction of all forests. What an odd policy, to be 

 solicitous to drive back the natural progress of all that creates 

 wealth, and cover our lands with those woods which the 

 creation of wealth has extirpated ! One great reproach of the 

 Venetian government in Istria is, that the state is more anxious 

 to preserve the woods than the people; that they have, by 

 severities, driven away the inhabitants as animals very noxious 

 to woods, with such success that their aim is answered— the 

 people are gone, and the forests flourish. We are anxious for 

 the same effect ; but by different means. We would not drive 



