DETAILED SURVEY OF THE FOKT AUGUSTUS BLOCK. 1 7 



It is probably fair to conclude that, in proportion to the 

 extent of ground open to deer, equally good sport would be 

 shown, but in rather a different way. 



Whether sportsmen would still take forests under these altered 

 conditions is a question which time alone can solve. The partial 

 substitution of wood stalking for hill work, the blotting out 

 of some of the best beats, the unsightly deer fences, and the 

 disturbance caused by the foresters and their employees, are 

 all factors tending to lower the rents that sporting tenants 

 would be prepared to pay. 



Deer forests more than any other form of sporting estate 

 depend on fashion. That there is a risk of this fashion chang- 

 ing must be admitted, and all possible provision must, in con- 

 sequence, be made to cut down to the minimum this risk to 

 one of the few channels through which money flows into the 

 Highlands. 



WINTERING OF SHEEP AND DEER IN PLANTATIONS. 



It is to be remembered that the value of wintering for all stock 

 depends on two factors : (i) shelter, and (2) food. The forest, even 

 in the extreme case of a dense crop of 30-year-old spruce, gives 

 shelter ; while food is supplied, on the more grassy portion under 

 larch by spaces left unplanted, as in Germany, and, in the case 

 of deer by the cultivation of whins on light and stony soil. 



The improvement of wintering by sowing patches of whins, 

 which are fenced for two or three years and opened to the 

 deer in the third or fourth year, according to the growth, has 

 already been proved in the Glen Mor district, and both at 

 Glendoe and Dell, in the Fort Augustus Block, examples of the 

 results can be seen. Some 20 acres of established whins supply 

 food for a large proportion of the stock of stags in time of snow. 



It will be argued by the silviculturally-minded that the admis- 

 sion of sheep and deer after fifteen to twenty years will damage 

 the woods and prevent under-planting. This is at once admitted 

 without reserve as to under-planting, and in a modified degree 

 as to damage to pole crops ; the question for the management is 

 whether this silvicultural loss will be balanced by the economic 

 gain. It must be remembered that in the various sheep grounds 

 and deer forests, the extent of ground thrown open in the first 

 blocks will run from 450 to 1000 acres. That damage will be done 

 is certain, especially on the higher fringe of the planted ground ; 



VOL. XXV. B 



