AFFORESTATION. 177 



fact remains that many Highland parishes, and some counties to 

 a large extent, are dependent in the main on sporting assessments 

 for local revenue, especially where there are many crofts which 

 under the Crofters' Act are rated, where crofters have made 

 their own improvements, on the low scale of their land alone. 

 Highland rates being already sometimes well over los. in the 

 pound, the financial consequences of general afforestation of those 

 winter grazings, which contain the most profitable silvicultural 

 area, might conceivably render a 20s. rate inadequate for local 

 government requirements. This is quite a possible contingency, 

 unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer redistributes grants in 

 aid according to the recommendations of the Minority Reports 

 on the incidence of local taxation ; for rates on plantations, as 

 on crofters, rule low, and a disappearance of the sporting and 

 sheep farm rents from some assessment rolls (these being the 

 values on which the normal rates are mainly levied) would in 

 many instances at once provoke a financial crisis. It will be 

 a delicate matter to withdraw from existing holdings the 

 land really required for afforestation, and to re-allocate the 

 portions unsuited to silviculture ; for the great economic problem 

 of the Highlands is winter keep, and this is found below the 

 1000 ft. level, which is as a rule the upper limit for profitable 

 silviculture. Above that line most of the area would be most 

 profitably allocated to sport. Where the Crofter Acts operate, 

 little can be done for silviculture, and elsewhere the problem of 

 re-allocation being serious, the afforestation of small areas is 

 better left to the individual. The best sphere for the State lies 

 in the purchase by agreement and compulsion of large grazings 

 or whole estates, thereby minimising claims for severance 

 damages. What is not wanted for afforestation can then be 

 re-allocated for sport, or in the case of arable land for small 

 holdings, which fit in well with silviculture. What is certain 

 is that any hap-hazard scheme, arbitrarily applied, would meet 

 with united opposition in the Highlands or anywhere else. 

 What is, and what is not, practicable will be made apparent by 

 the survey. This once settled, we can concentrate on the 

 respective capabilities of scheduled lands, and get reliable figures 

 as to the cost of stocking respective areas. This varies from 40s. 

 an acre on the heathery slope to ^10 an acre for ordinary 

 English hardwood plantations. The supply of local labour and 

 its quality will be ascertained, and the cost — in the absence of 



