INTRODUCTION xxvii 



have led, in modern times, to a careful investigation of the subject 

 of the management of forests and everything connected with it. 

 The Germans were the first who treated scientifically of the man- 

 agement of forests, and established forest academies, in which all 

 branches of the knowledge relating to them are taught. France 

 has likewise paid attention to her forests, and has enacted a code 

 forestier. And now that our own Government has taken afforesta- 

 tion in hand by purchasing the estate of Inverliever, in Argyllshire, 

 owned by Colonel Malcolm, of Portalloch, consisting of about 

 12,530 acres, the price agreed upon being less than 30,000, and on 

 which it is intended to found a State forest demonstration, there is 

 a prospect of some of the 15,000,000 acres of mountain and heath 

 land, with possibly a portion of nearly 10,000,000 acres of other 

 lands, being reclaimed, arid thus yield some, if not all, of the 

 30,000,000 worth of timber imported into this country annually, 

 and also the 3,000,000 acres of woodlands in the United Kingdom, 

 quite as much devoted to game, sheltering and beautifying the 

 earth's surface, as to the production of timber, be so improved by 

 judicious forestry as to contribute more than the 3,000,000 worth 

 of timber annually, as at present, to the nation's requirements, 

 while at the same time developing certain rural industries. In 

 England and Wales there are thirty-four local authorities with 

 catchment areas owned or leased of 90,000 acres, and of these 

 only 2,000 acres are in woodland. In these catchment areas there 

 is, no doubt, as in the case of mountain and heath and also 

 other lands, much ground not suitable for afforestation on account 

 of soil unfitness, altitude and exposure of location, and to these 

 considerations has to be given due weight in regard of profitable 

 development. This is one of the chief difficulties in the way of 

 large schemes of afforestation in this country, and above all the 

 divided ownership of large tracts of contiguous land essentially 

 desirable for afforestation. Add to these difficulties that of from 

 30,000 to 40,000 acres of land annually snatched from the agri- 

 cultural domain of the United Kingdom for residential, factory 

 and industrial purposes, the burden under which municipalities 

 and private owners and through them the State labour in the matter 

 of afforestation as compared with other countries, is made more 

 apparent, particularly as not only the woodlands, mountain and 

 heath, and other lands, are held quite as much, if not more, as sport- 

 ing grounds as for timber and light grazing purposes. Deer forests 

 and lands exclusively devoted to sport in countries other than 

 crofting counties in Scotland, represent a total of 557,544 acres, 

 with a rental, as shown in the valuation roll, of 36,118. Surely, 

 this area, and at least ten, if not twenty, times its multiple of moun- 

 tain and heath, or other lands, jcould be reclaimed by municipali- 

 ties and the State, who in former times have allowed large forests 

 and large tracts of land to slip away either from ownership or 



