DEER FORESTS 155 



The State ownership of forests in this country 

 on any considerable scale may then be ruled out of 

 the question. But the State should assist by owning 

 small areas ; and especially is this necessary to give 

 the lead in the growth of hard woods such as, e.g., oak, 

 which requires a long period of years to produce 

 large, high-quaHty timber. 



What is the land we shall have to make use of in 

 the afforestation scheme ? 

 And how is the land to be acquired ? 

 The answer to the first question is that, broadly 

 speaking, the greater part of the land is at present 

 utilized in three ways : (i) As deer forests; (2) Land 

 used chiefly for sport, exclusive of deer forests; 

 (3) The area of so-called mountain and heath land 

 used for grazing purposes, chiefly sheep grazing. 



The area of land devoted to deer forests at the 

 outbreak of war was somewhere in the neighbour- 

 hood of 4,000,000 acres. The total moimtain and 

 heath land was put at some 16,000,000 acres. 



Much of this area is above the present limit of 

 afiorestation. Perhaps it is safe to say that some 

 5,000,000 acres are capable of being planted up 

 without excessive cost being incurred in the opera- 

 tion. 



Both deer forests (though perhaps to a lesser 

 extent than before the war, owing to their greatly 

 depreciated value) and grazing lands present the 

 same problem for solution. They both consist of 

 lower ground necessary for the wintering — i.e. the 

 winter grazing and protection of the deer and stock 

 during the inclement season of the year — and the 

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