6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARHORICUI/IURAL SOCIETY. 



Scotland, and that such land is purchasable on reason- 

 able terms ; 



(2) Afforestation affords the only available means of giving 



more employment and wages to the existing population 

 of the Highlands, and of enabling a larger population 

 to live on the land ; 



(3) Intimate relationship should exist between afforestation 



and schemes for small holdings in the Highlands ; 



(4) Ample experience and a sufficiency of trained men can be 



found to justify afforestation on a large scale on care- 

 fully chosen areas." 

 Sir Herbert Maxwell said : — " My remarks bear entirely upon 

 the amount of land, unsuitable for agriculture but capable of 

 producing profitable timber, which exists in Scotland. 



"The Central Highlands have been dealt with in a large 

 measure by my friends Captain Stirling and Lord Lovat. As for 

 the other parts of the Central Highlands I need only say that 

 the forests of Deeside and Strathspey, and the mountains 

 bordering the central parts of Strathspey, speak for themselves 

 as to their capability for producing timber of the very highest 

 quality. The part of Scotland with which I am more immediately 

 familiar, with which I have a lifelong acquaintance, is the 

 Southern Upland, extending from south of Ayrshire for about 

 seventy miles, and with very few intervals — river valleys — as far 

 east as Moffat and Hawick. The whole of that land is under 

 pasture except the river valleys, and I have the greatest con- 

 fidence in saying that that part of it which is under 1000 feet is 

 capable of being brought under profitable forestry. I was asked 

 indeed by the Office of Woods and Forests, about five years ago, 

 to report upon an estate which was for sale at the time, and it 

 was in the contemplation of the Office of Woods and Forests to 

 purchase it for forestry purposes. I found that the whole of the 

 ground, extending to between 8000 and 10,000 acres, except a 

 very small proportion of moss, was most suitable for forestry 

 purposes. The pasture rent was 5d. an acre, the sporting rent 

 was yd. an acre, and the whole area might have been purchased 

 on that basis, say twenty-five years' purchase at 25s. an acre. 

 The negotiations fell through. Estates in that part of the 

 country have frequently changed hands of late years. 



"If I may allude to that vast area offered by the Duke of 

 Sutherland to the State, I am tolerably familiar with the greater 



