334 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



Board of Agriculture may extend the period 

 of charge for loans obtained for planting, for 

 shelter, or for any beneficial purposes which will 

 increase the permanent value of the land, up to 

 forty years ; and the rent charge made by the 

 Scottish Drainage and Improvement Company to 

 repay capital and interest within that maximum 

 period is ^4, us. 6d. per cent, per annum, 

 payable half-yearly, for advances of ^300 or 

 upwards. This assistance hardly goes far enough 

 to induce impecunious landowners to form eco- 

 nomic woodlands on any large scale. For at 

 least ten years, and often for twenty years, in 

 some parts of the country, there would be no 

 returns at all, or next to none, from the young 

 woods. All would be outlay. And besides that, 

 there is hardly any highwood crop which can be 

 considered to have reached its financial maturity 

 at forty years of age ; hence, for timber crops, 

 the maximum period of the loan might safely 

 be extended so as to lighten the burden during 

 the first ten or twenty years on the landowner 

 desirous of making such an investment for the 

 benefit of his sons or grandsons, and indirectly 

 for the good of the country in general. 



