l68 TKANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



come to the rescue, and among them render a compromise 

 possible. 



Where, as in the case we considered just now, the whole 

 waste ground of a farm or deer forest can be planted, the 

 transition is quite simple. The stock of sheep or deer will be 

 gradually reduced as the planting advances till there is none 

 left and the woods take its place. But in the case with which 

 we are now dealing, where there is a large hinterland to be 

 devoted permanently to sheep and deer, the transition must be 

 effected in what may be called a series of bounds. You must 

 rapidly plant a large block, say, one-quarter or one-third of the 

 whole area you mean to plant, and you must plant no more 

 until that block is old enough to be opened for wintering. 

 Then you enclose another, and so on, making sure that not 

 more than one-third of the wintering is enclosed at any one 

 time. Under this arrangement, which is too complicated to 

 explain here in detail, but which is fully described in the above- 

 mentioned report, the hinterland will still preserve its value for 

 summer grazing, while the lower ground will not only still afford 

 wintering, but will at the same time be put to the far more 

 profitable use of growing timber. No opposition to a change 

 of this kind need be expected from the owners of deer forests. 

 Deer forests are spoken of as luxuries. To the rich tenants 

 who hire them they are luxuries — a very sane and desirable 

 kind of luxury, but still luxuries. To the owner they are more 

 often the last resource of an impoverished estate. Many and 

 many a deer forest has been unwillingly made under pressure 

 of the fall in sheep rents and our extraordinary system of sheep 

 valuation. In such cases the owner would welcome a change 

 which will relieve both his conscience and his purse, and put 

 his land to a use more economically sound. But the capital 

 sunk in making plantations, however profitable, can bring in 

 little or no return for the first 80 years. For an impoverished 

 landlord such a speculation is out of the question. 



In many cases, therefore, this reform can only be made with 

 the assistance of the State, A joint arrangement under which 

 the landlord will contribute the land and the State its credit — a 

 business arrangement profitable to both parties — will not be 

 found difficult to adjust. Where only part of the subject can 

 be planted, this seems the best kind of arrangement, unless the 

 owner can afford to plant it himself. But where the whole 



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