AGRICULTURE AND BRITISH FORESTRY 65 



high prices, while the temporary pecuniary sacrifices, 

 involved in the early stages of forestry development, pre- 

 vent it ever becoming a private enterprise on a national 

 scale. As raw material, timber must be regarded as quite 

 as essential to the industrial progress of the British Isles 

 as coal, iron, or cotton, and while food must obviously 

 take the first place as a necessity of life, it may not be 

 the most costly under normal trade conditions. Within 

 reasonable limits, therefore, one may justify the conten- 

 tion that the agricultural area of a country should be 

 limited or reduced for the purpose of maintaining an 

 adequate forest area. This has, as a matter of fact, been 

 done already in Germany, France, Belgium, and other 

 countries possessing a rural population quite as dense 

 as that of Great Britain, for wherever forest occupies 

 land capable of cultivation, and is maintained on such 

 land at the expense of the State, it is evident that the 

 principle is recognised that timber is a necessity of 

 industrial life to a greater or less extent. 



The possibility of forest extension on land not used 

 for agriculture in the British Isles may be practically 

 regarded as out of the question. From the table already 

 given, it is seen that all land in England and Wales not 

 occupied by towns, roads, unavoidable wastes, etc., is 

 accounted for, and the only class which might be regarded 

 as unutilised is that described as mountain or heath land 

 used for grazing. The large area in Scotland, both included 

 in that class, and unaccounted for altogether, suggests the 

 po-ssibility of forest extension in that country to a greater 

 extent than elsewhere, and it may be worth while to examine 

 the condition of this mountain area a little more closely. 



From the above table, it is seen that the total area of 

 grazed mountain in Great Britain is returned as over 

 12,000,000 acres, three- fourths of which are in Scotland. 

 Both of this class and the unreturned area, Scotland 



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