THE STATE AND PRIVATE OWNERS 269 



timber of from 50 to 100 per cent. — a possible increase 

 under present conditions of supply and demand — might 

 invest such a scheme with quite a different aspect. 



No doubt local conditions will affect the possibility 

 of forest extension in the British Isles greatly. Parts 

 of the country with large holdings, thin populations, and 

 local climates not adapted for cultivated crops, afford 

 much greater possibilities than when the reverse condi- 

 tions obtain. The West Highlands of Scotland and 

 many parts of Ireland and Wales have many physical 

 features in common, but whereas in the former the culti- 

 vation of the land is reduced to the smallest possible 

 area, and the resident population confined to a few large 

 sheep farmers, shepherds, and keepers, the latter are more 

 thickly populated, so far as agricultural land is concerned, 

 than many of the richest districts in the United King- 

 dom. Whether these differences are duo to natural or 

 artificial causes it is difficult to say, but probably both 

 have had something to do with them. National character, 

 education, social traditions, and customs tend in one case 

 to decrease the population on the poorer land, and in the 

 other to maintain it at its normal level in spite of all 

 drawbacks and hardships. 



In the hill districts of Scotland and the north of Ensf- 

 land rural depopulation has gone on to an enormous ex- 

 tent, and the remains of small holdings and farms may be 

 seen on every hillside. In Wales and Ireland depopulation 

 in similar districts has not gone on to the same degree, 

 and hundreds of poor holdings are occupied simply 

 because they afford a home for the occupier, and not 

 merely on account of the profit which can be made from 

 the land. These differences in personal motives, customs, 

 and traditions have great influence upon the possibilities 

 of forest development in the British Isles. In the larger 

 sheep-rearing districts the absence of cultivation in any 



