S6 AFFORESTATIOX IX SCOTLAND. 



to increase the aflForested area in the British Isles, it is quite 

 certain that the total amount of land afforested by direct State 

 intervention will, for many generations, be but a very small 

 proportion of that which will grow trees. It is therefore of the 

 first importance that the whole question should be viewed on the 

 broadest lines : that each of the five methods indicated above, 

 or any combination of them, or other methods which from time 

 to time may be suggested, should be considered, each on its 

 own value, in the special area in which it might be tried. For 

 a large area to work upon is a more vital necessity in the case 

 of forestry than it is in any other form of occupation of land. 



Insurance. 



One further point in this connection is sufficiently important 

 to require at all events a passing reference. 



Death duties, the ever-increasing burden of the local rates, and 

 a high income tax, are factors in estate management which have 

 come to stay. With a falling net revenue and an increased 

 liability to charges greater than the average estate can meet out 

 of income, insurance, where the income admits it, has come to 

 bulk more and more prominently in the yearly budget. 



The question which requires the closest investigation is, 

 whether it is possible to attract the moneys which at present are 

 spent in the purchase of insurance policies back to their former 

 line of safeguarding estates, viz.. in the plantation of woods. 



Modern finance regulations, viz. : — 



{a) Special rebates on income tax for insurance policies, 

 {b) The incidence of death duties, 



(c) High local rates (entirely' avoidable by investment 

 outside the kingdom) 



all tend to benefit the insurance companies at the ultimate cost 

 of the country dweller. 



A comparison of the margin of safety which is afforded to an 

 estate by means of insurance by planting trees as compared with 

 insurance by insurance-policy, is one which cannot be stated 

 simply, and it is therefore beyond the scope of this present note. 



One outstanding fact, however, is patent. Estate owners have 

 in the past planted or maintained under natural wood nearly 

 900,000 acres of land in Scotland, presumably to improve their 



