RELATION OF FORESTRY TO AGRICULTURE, ETC. I 25 



crofters in the strict sense, as I am speaking of Aberdeenshire 

 and Kincardineshire. I let these with the idea of utilising the 

 labour in my woods. I have never regretted what I did. 

 Although in itself it was not a profitable undertaking, because the 

 capital expenditure was somewhat large, I maintain that in the 

 long run even that capital expenditure will come back, and the 

 tenants have not, I think, regretted having taken the crofts. I 

 know perfectly well that they have improved their position ever 

 since they came there, and it is simply because they are in the 

 happy position of having work to do and wages to gain in the 

 time when there is no work upon their holdings. I, on the other 

 hand, am gaining because I get my workmen kept on the place, 

 and I get the work done which I have undertaken. That I look 

 to as one of the ways, I might almost say the main way, in which 

 forestry is going to be beneficial to agriculture. Most of 

 the forestry work, I need hardly say to such an audience as this, 

 takes place in the winter time, when the work on the crofts or 

 small holdings, or you may say almost on any farm, is more or 

 less at a standstill. It is more, however, at a standstill upon 

 small holdings than upon a farm. The amount of tillage to be 

 done is small, and the amount of stock to be looked after small. 

 The chief work of the small holder — I am speaking of holdings 

 of 5 to 12 acres — is to get his crop put in, and that is only 

 a matter of a few days, hours sometimes, while the tending of 

 his stock is only a matter of a few minutes per day, and can 

 often be done by his wife ; therefore the work is spasmodic 

 and not continuous, at anyrate in the winter time. Now the 

 work in the woods is very largely wanted at that time, and for 

 that reason they fit so well, the one works into the other, so that 

 in every way they are profitable the one to the other. 



" But let me go a little further. There is the question of sub- 

 sidiary employment, there is the whole question of transport, the 

 whole question of minor industries which spring from a forest being 

 instituted in any particular place. One of the great difficulties 

 in connection with small holdings considerably removed from 

 larger neighbours is the question of tillage. Tillage requires 

 the keeping of a horse or a stot, which latter I wonder is not 

 more utilised by some as a means of cultivating the ground. 

 One or two may club together and keep a horse between them. 

 If some amount of haulage is required by the forest you will see 

 how very much easier it is for those people to keep a horse 



