AGRICULTURE AND BRITISH FORESTRY 67 



but 7 per cent, of the whole surface, it may be taken as an 

 approximate fact that these figures approach the maxi- 

 mum capacity of the agricultural land for carrying stock. 

 Yet in Scotland, with only 25 per cent, of the entire sur- 

 face under cultivation, it is found that the number of 

 cattle is slightly, and the number of sheep enormously 

 exceeded, being between the two more than double that 

 of England per 100 acres of cultivated land. While the 

 methods of rearing, feeding, and wintering live-stock in 

 the two countries, as well as the ages of the stock, may 

 affect the significance of these figures to some extent, 

 they clearly imply that the deficiency in the area of crops 

 and grass in Scotland is largely made good by the moun- 

 tain-grazing. 



Confining the inquiries to counties, it is seen that the 

 head of stock in the four counties of Sutherland, Peebles, 

 Selkirk, and Inverness is greatly in excess of the maximum 

 carrying capacity of the cultivated land, and varies from 

 380 to 657 per 100 acres of the latter. If the normal 

 stock-carrying capacity of land having 70 per cent, of its 

 cultivated surface under crops, and 30 per cent, under 

 permanent pasture be put at 10 cattle and 90 sheep 

 per 100 acres — the percentage corresponding to what is 

 actually the case in Scotland, and the head of stock to 

 what would probably be found in a mountainous district 

 — the absolute necessity for the retention of a large area 

 of mountain land for grazing, or a more or less total change 

 in the system of farming, is self-evident. As is well 

 known, mountain-grazing is principally confined to the 

 summer months, and during the period when the culti- 

 vated or enclosed land is producing corn, roots, or hay. 

 Any considerable reduction of the mountain-grazing, 

 therefore, must result in a relative reduction of stock or 

 area under crops, as the case may be. Two questions 

 present themselves in connection with such a reduction: 



