DETAILED SURVEY OF THE FORT AUGUSTUS BLOCK. 13 



land suitable for afforestation, especially in the districts which 

 stand most in need of development. 



TREATMENT OF SHEEP FARMS. 



The value of sheep ground in this portion of Glen Mor is 

 not high. Even in the best days of sheep farming, on certain 

 forests, sheep rents did not equal a fifth of the gross rental which 

 the same land now gives under deer. The summer grazing 

 on some parts of the higher stretches of the Monaliadh barely 

 exceeds a penny per acre per annum. Corriesoulagach, 2600 

 acres in extent, fetches a rent of ^13, while ^25 is paid for 

 another block of 4000 acres in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 Even on the low ground, the rents for hill grazing, apart from 

 the value of houses and arable land, are low. The rent of ^230 

 for the farm of Aberchalder covers 100 acres of arable land, a 

 ^"1200 house, extensive steadings, and some 9010 acres of hill 

 ground. 



The treatment advised for sheep farms differs from that 

 advised for deer forests. The high ground of a sheep farm 

 has its value both as a wether-hirsel and as grouse ground, 

 even if the greater part of the low ground be taken away. 



The treatment suggested for sheep farms in the Fort Augustus 

 Block is to begin at one end of the wintering of one farm, as 

 shown in Map No. 3, and to plant the whole of it before enter- 

 ing the next farm. The arable ground taken from the sheep 

 farm will be occupied by the small holdings of the forest workers, 

 and the farm houses will be used to accommodate the staff, 

 or, perhaps, will be let to summer visitors, the high ground 

 being let for a flying stock, i.e. for grazing from June to mid- 

 September. 



It is not to be taken for granted that this method of dealing 

 with sheep farms is of universal application, even throughout the 

 whole of. Glen Mor. In the Fort Augustus Block the sheep 

 grazing is indifferent, and the sum to be debited against afforesta- 

 tion, as the difference between the rents returned by a flying stock 

 and by a permanent stock, is not a large one. 



From this special treatment of a selected area, it must 

 not be supposed that planting is necessarily wholly incom- 

 patible with sheep farming. Certain rich grazing lands on 

 the borders, which let at a rent of nearly 5s. per acre per 

 annum, are, no doubt, for some time at all events, rightly to be 



