AGRICULTURE AND BRITISH FORESTRY 81 



agriculture adapts itself to temporary conditions of 

 commerce, in spite of what critics may state to the 

 contrary. At that period all classes of land capable of 

 cultivation were broken up for wheat-cropping, and 

 instances are recorded, such as that on the Bedford 

 estate, of even woodland being cleared at enormous 

 expense, only to be planted with trees again after the 

 boom in prices was past. Every one knows that large 

 areas exist in the shape of corners, strips, marshy 

 bottoms, banks of rivers and ravines, etc., which might just 

 as well be growing trees as not ; but even this land is not 

 as a rule absolutely waste, but is in most cases used for rough 

 grazing, and probably brings in almost as high a return 

 in that way as it would under anything in the timber 

 line, apart from trees like larch, ash, or Douglas fir. In 

 any case, areas of this class could only be planted by the 

 individual owner, and this form of afforestation deserves 

 much greater encouragement from the State than it has 

 hitherto received, bearing in mind the landscape and 

 shelter effect produced by it upon the country gener- 



ally. 



The finding of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, 

 to the effect that 9,000,000 acres should be afforested in 

 the British Isles, is doubtless sound in a way, for no 

 sane individual can doubt that the country would not 

 only be the better of more economically managed 

 woodland, but also for the planting of land which would 

 be, from an economic point of view, well suited for the 

 purpose. But from the individual point of view it may 

 well be asked what proportion of the agricultural 

 population can be dispossessed of their holdings without 

 inflicting hardships upon them or their families ? Take 

 the case of a hill farmer, assisted by two or three sons, 

 who holds about 50 acres of arable and enclosed pasture, 

 and a joint right to 1000 acres of mountain. The rental 



F 



