FORESTRY IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SCOTLAND. l6l 



19. The Place of Forestry in the Economic 

 Development of Scotland.^ 



By Sir John Stirling-Maxuem., Bart. 



In a small and populous country like this forestry is 

 essentially a highland industry. That does not mean that 

 it is to be bounded by the line that guide books trace across 

 the map of Scotland to warn the tourist when he passes from 

 the clutch of the obstinate Saxon into that of the passionate 

 Celt. The word highland is used here in its literal sense, and 

 includes the great areas of uncultivated hills which occupy 

 two-thirds of Scotland south of the Forth. The lowland country, 

 subject to that deduction, is a meagre space. It is, in fact, 

 confined to a fringe seldom 30 miles broad along the east 

 coast, and a still narrower fringe on the west coast which extends 

 only from the Clyde to the Solway. But within these narrow 

 limits are enclosed most of the inhabitants and most of the 

 wealth of Scotland. If you study the distribution of the existing 

 woods, you will find that they stick pretty close to the cultivated 

 country. The reason is that the woods have been planted or, 

 if natural, enclosed and cared for out of the profits of agricul- 

 ture and other lowland industries. In the Central and West 

 Highlands, where trees flourish quite as well, woods are scarce 

 because there has been no capital with which to plant them. 

 Keep this in your mind ; it is the root of the whole question. 

 In the lowland fringe, with its rich soil and large population, 

 little increase of the woodland area is to be expected or desired. 

 True, the existing woods can be made much more productive 

 than they are at present, but that is not our question. We may, 

 therefore, confine our attention to the Highland districts where 

 forestry has never had a look in, and never can have a look 

 in unless the State comes to its aid, but where there are luckily 

 woods enough to prove conclusively the worth of the great 

 field which still lies undeveloped. It is the relation of forestry 

 to agriculture in those districts that we have now to consider. 



If anyone here thinks that there is, or can be, any conflict 

 between the ploughman and the planter, let me beg him to 

 put that idea out of his head at once. Agriculture comes first 



^ An Address delivered before the Aberdeen Branch of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society. 



