KENT ANIJ OTHER CHARGES. 25 



and sporting values, the Forest Authority will ha\e to make 

 further payments under two heads, viz. : — 



1. The usual compensation for sheep valuations, including 

 acclimatization value, tenants' waygoings, etc., as set out in 

 Appendix C. On the Fort Augustus Block these would amount 

 to some ^3500 of capital expenditure, payable to the sitting 

 tenants before entry into actual possession of the land could 

 be given. 



2. Payment for loss of land for natural birch crop and 

 silvicultural purposes generally — a value quite outside that of 

 sporting rents. 



The reader will observe that up to this point there has been 

 no mention of any payment to the landowner, other than 

 bare compensation for the actual loss of rent which he will incur 

 through the afforestation of his wintering. 



As will be seen from Messrs Brown and Mackenzie's report, the 

 silvicultural value of the land included in the forest area varies 

 very considerably. And the compensation will also vary ; but 

 since it is governed by the wintering question, and is therefore to 

 be reckoned on the loss of each subject as a whole, the com- 

 pensation will not vary in the same ratio as the acreage or the 

 quality of the soil. In other words, some of the bargains made 

 by the Forest Authority will be better than others. None will 

 be bad, or the Forest Authority would not make them, but some of 

 them will be extremely good. The Forest Authority may, in some 

 cases, pay as little as a shilling an acre for land which is capable 

 for carrying ;^20o worth of larch after sixty years' growth. It 

 may, in some cases, take land which brings in a gross return of 

 ;^io to £1^ an acre for birch crop every fifty years; while, in 

 other cases, it may include sour land on which little besides bog 

 myrtle and scrub will grow.' 



It is evident that some payment must be made under this 

 head, but, on the grounds both of equity and expediency, the 



^ In the Glen Mor district, the various estates either market their birch crop 

 at irregular intervals, when it becomes ripe, or combine together to put a 

 regular annual supply on to the market. The money got for the sale of birch- 

 wood and birch-brooms is, as a rule, re-invested on the estate in the form of 

 plantations, with the result that a portion of the plantable land is gradually, 

 though slowly, being afiforested. Some 14,000 acres out of 60,000 acres 

 available in the Glen Mor area are now under coniferous woods. 



