l66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



whole sheep farms can be turned into small holdings and 

 forests. Even without going outside this easy ground there 

 is probably a large field for silviculture, especially now that 

 the profits of sheep farming have fallen so low that it is difficult 

 to get a tenant to take a sheep farm even at a half or a third of 

 the old rent. But there are many parts of the Highlands in 

 which the problem is more complicated. The chief complica- 

 tions arise, first, from sporting values, and secondly, from the 

 existence of great areas of ground too high, too poor, and too 

 exposed to plant, which, shorn of the adjacent wintering ground, 

 have no value for any purpose whatever. These two difficulties 

 are in many cases tangled together. Those who wish to see 

 both questions thrashed out for a typical district should read 

 the Forest Si/n^ey of Gle/i Mor, 191 2, prepared by Lord Lovat 

 and Captain Stirling of Keir for the Society, a work in which they 

 had the assistance of lairds, factors, foresters, gamekeepers, forest 

 experts, and actuaries — a singular report, because every one 

 concerned put his best work into it for love. 



I do not know what view you take of deer forests, but 

 I suppose we should all agree that we have quite enough of 

 them, and most people would be glad to see some of their 

 area converted into the other kind of forest. Deer forests are 

 so numerous simply because they secure a good rent without 

 the outlay of much capital. My old friend, Mr George 

 Malcolm, who speaks from a long experience of the Highlands, 

 published a pamphlet last autumn, in which he maintained the 

 double paradox that deer forests were economically sound, and 

 that silviculture was economically unsound in the Highlands. 

 It may be true, I believe it often is, that a deer forest employs 

 more people than the same area under sheep. It certainly 

 brings in a larger rent. From a purely parochial point of view, 

 it may therefore claim to be economically sound ; but from no 

 other. It provides a healthy existence for a small group of 

 people, but it produces nothing except a small quantity of 

 venison, for which there is no demand. It causes money to 

 change hands. A pack of cards can do that. I doubt whether 

 it could be said of a single deer forest, however barren and 

 remote, that it could serve no better purpose. One I happen 

 to know well lies nearly all above the looo-feet level, with a 

 desperately bad soil and no wintering. Even there hundreds 

 of acres can be profitably planted without diminishing the 



