FORESTRY IN SOME OF ITS ECONOMIC ASPECTS. I 25 



production, and they arrived at the conclusion that the weight 

 of meat, calculated as mutton, that would be displaced by the 

 extensive planting of the class of land indicated, would amount 

 at most to 15 lbs. per acre per annum. ^ The weight of meat 

 that would be displaced by the afforestation of 9,000,000 acres 

 would therefore aggregate 60,000 tons per annum ; and, 

 utilising the figures of the Milk and Meat Committee of this 

 Society,- the Commission pointed out that the meat displaced 

 would amount to 4'8i per cent, of our total home-grown produce, 

 or 2-67 per cent, of our annual consumption. 



" While there would be some displacement of meat there would 

 be no displacement, though there would be some disturbance, of 

 population as a consequence of extended afforestation, so long 

 as the work was confined to pastoral areas. In the absence of 

 tillage a very small staff of shepherds suffices to work a grazing 

 farm of the character of those which embrace the hill districts of 

 Scotland, and the north and west of England. The number 

 of sheep placed in the charge of a man varies to some extent 

 with the breed and with the character of the ground, but chiefly 

 with the character of the stock, that is to say, whether it is a 

 ewe or wedder stock. A breeding stock requires most attention, 

 and the usual number allocated to a shepherd — the "hirsel" 

 as it is called all over Scotland — is 500. Wedder stocks — 

 which, however, are hardly known outside the higher ground 

 of Wales and the north of England and the Highlands of 

 Scotland — are shepherded at the rate of as many as 2000, but 

 as the grazing ground of such flocks, for the most part, lies 

 above the planting limit, they may in this connection be 

 disregarded. If two acres be allowed to each ewe, it means 

 that one shepherd is employed on a thousand acres, and this 

 figure has been accepted in both the recent English inquiries. 



"The question then arises : How many men can find constant 

 employment per unit of area — say, 1000 acres — in a forest 

 worked upon a definite rotation ? The answer will obviously 

 depend upon various considerations : The species of tree, the 

 length of the rotation, the character of the ground, the method 

 of working — whether stocking is accomplished by natural or 

 artificial means, and, if the latter, whether by sowing or planting 

 — whether the trees are sold standing or are first felled, whether 



1 Report, sect. 78-79. 



"^ Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. Ixvii., p. 380. 



