138 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCO'ITISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIPny. 



aversion, but I must say, and I have talked the matter over with 

 men in all grades of the farming world, I have found very 

 little of this ; in fact I have only found one real case of objection, 

 and that was a sheep owner who had 7000 acres of grazing 

 land, and was afraid that this would be entirely taken away. 

 I explained to him that planting would not be carried out 

 indiscriminately, but would be under a proper system, and that 

 no large area belonging to one person would be taken and 

 planted in one block, but would be divided into compartments 

 and spread over a series of years. He considered that planting on 

 that line would not affect existing conditions to any great extent. 



" In so far as small land-holders are concerned I have not 

 found one against any scheme of forestry; on the contrary, they 

 say that forestry should go hand in hand with agriculture. I 

 may say that I mentioned the fact to the Coast Erosion Com- 

 mission who took some evidence in forestry some years ago, 

 that on estates in the north of Scotland where numbers of , 

 crofters are employed in the woods department throughout the 

 year, that these men say, and say emphatically, that the work 

 they got in the woods helped them to lead comfortable lives, 

 and that if it were not for this work they could not exist on 

 their holdings. These men were so emphatic on this point five 

 or six years ago that I feel sure they would be so still. 



" In districts which are more or less treeless, the farmers have 

 got it into their heads that a certain amount of tree planting 

 would be beneficial to the district in general. I was asked the 

 other day if I thought that it would be long before a planting 

 scheme would begin. I replied that I did not think so. They 

 appeared well pleased, and I was glad, therefore, that I told 

 them such, even although I did so at the risk of telling a false- 

 hood ; but my conscience has been considerably eased since I 

 heard Mr Sutherland's statement. 



" It is really believed that woods have a greater effect in 

 influencing the fertility of arable land than they get credit for. 

 Many a farm in the higher lands of Scotland would not be 

 worth cultivating if it were not for the shelter afforded from 

 belts, strips and woods in the immediate vicinity. Evidence of 

 this is not altogether wanting, crops growing well in a wooded 

 part, while on soil at the same altitude, and of more or less the 

 same nature, but in a treeless district, they are decidedly not so 

 good, especially from a grain point of view. 



I 



