132 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARKORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



but to within 200 or 300 yards of it. On that particular 

 side the land was never touched, with the result that it is 

 certainly not worth more than 2s. or 3s. per acre, while the 

 grass within the sheltered area is worth ^i or 17s. per 

 acre. I went over the ground and made every possible 

 examination of it, and to my knowledge the result I have 

 mentioned is due to the cumulative effect of this shelter 

 acting for 1 20 years, and also what is a more important fact, 

 that since you got the pasture up to a certain level of 

 excellence you could feed upon it beasts supplied with cake 

 and other artificial food, which improved the soil. 



" There is one point I want to bring before the meeting, and 

 it is this. I do not think that any of you who have not, as 

 I have, tried to find your way along the boundary of Roxburgh 

 and Dumfriesshire can have the very faintest conception of the 

 amount of ground, in the south of Scotland especially, that is 

 capable of cultivation. There are hundreds of thousands of 

 acres in that part of Scotland running right across the hill 

 country from the west of Wigtownshire and Ayrshire, right 

 across the whole of Galloway, through Dumfriesshire and 

 Roxburgh, and through the Lammermoors and the whole of 

 that enormous district, land which certainly on the average is 

 not rented at more than 2s. or 2s. 6d. per acre, and I do not 

 suppose that this generation, or the generation that follows this 

 generation, will ever manage to make a perceptible impression 

 in the way of planting that enormous area. Still I do think 

 that anybody to-day who begins in a small way to make an 

 impression upon that enormous area, every man who is con- 

 nected with this industry in any way whatever, is a public 

 benefactor, and as soon as the British public begin to realise 

 what it would mean to have the whole of this area covered 

 with wood producing something like 6s. or 7s. per acre in the 

 year, instead of something between is. 6d. and 2s. 6d., the 

 encouragement from the public will be prompt and thorough ; 

 and as I think I could show, if I had time, there is at present 

 even a perfectly good business reason for the promotion of 

 forestry in Scotland. I do think that anybody nowadays who 

 interests himself in a very small way in the protection and 

 development of forestry is doing what is earnestly required and 

 is really beginning a very great work which perhaps the great- 

 grandchildren of the present generation will appreciate." 



