AGRICULTLTRE AND BRITISH FORESTRY 73 



possibly his neighbour would not, and it is difficult, if not 

 impossible, to fix compensation for compulsory disturbance 

 in such cases. In Great Britain, no prairie or undeveloped 

 land exists to provide the mover with a new holding, and 

 it is only in times of agricultural depression that farms 

 can be found without tenants for any length of time. 

 Even where the transfer of land from agriculture to 

 forestry is justified on economic grounds, the moral right 

 of existence vested in an ancient industry must be recog- 

 nised, and land which has been utilised for centuries for 

 sheep-grazing cannot be turned into forest without the 

 settling of many legal and industrial questions of greater 

 or less importance to the various parties concerned. 

 Rights-of-way, water, and other obligations imposed upon 

 land in an ancient country have to be dealt with, and 

 the most difficult business of all is probably the straighten- 

 ing and readjustment of boundaries, a necessary process 

 if areas of convenient shape are to be obtained. 



To take a concrete case as an illustration of what may be 

 considered more or less typical of conditions prevailing in 

 mountain districts suitable for afforestation, the following 

 particulars regarding the small county of Selkirk may be 

 given. As shown in the table on page 86, this county 

 contains nearly 162,000 acres of agricultural land, of which 

 80 per cent, consists of mountain, and 20 per cent, of arable 

 and enclosed pasture. This area is divided up into 236 

 holdings, each having an average of 124 acres of cropped, 

 and 562 acres of mountain land. Each holding carries on 

 an average, according to the figures for 1906, 15 head of 

 cattle and 800 sheep, and Selkirk may, for all practical 

 purposes, be considered a purely sheep-farming county. 



The position of this county in the centre of the 

 Southern Highlands of Scotland renders it less exposed to 

 wind than the greater part of that country. Its geolo- 

 gical formation provides well-drained soils generally 



