326 
Improvement of Waste Lands. 
3,466,532 loads of liewn, split, or sawn timber, were imported 
into the United Kingdom, viz. : — 
Loads. 
Timber sawn or split 1,986,081 
Ditto hewn 1,480,451 
Total .. .. 3,460,532 
The estimated real value of the timber imported is stated to 
be 11 millions, and the quantity is said to be so much as to be 
without a parallel in Custom-house records ; the increase within 
the previous twelve years having been as much as 77 per cent, on 
sawn, and 60 per cent, on hewn timber. Indeed, notwith- 
standing that iron is so much substituted for timber, par- 
ticularly in ship-building, our annual consumption appears to 
be on the increase, and as civilisation advances the demand will 
very likely continue to grow. How long the natural forests can 
supply the increasing demand upon them it may be difficult to 
determine ; but should that supply begin to fall off a great impulse 
would be given to the timber market, and the day may come 
before very long, or at all events before plantations now being 
made have arrived at maturity. 
But the improvement of hill lands implies, at least, the de- 
struction of some of the heather and a consequent encroach- 
ment upon grouse-shooting grounds. It would be a pity to do 
anything calculated to deprive our aristocracy, and those who 
work hard at the desk in our busy towns, of the healthy recreation 
of grouse-shooting. Whether grouse or the rearing of stock is 
to predominate, will, in the long run, depend upon which is the 
most remunerative. But is there not room for both ? Some of 
the lands, in consequence of their altitude or barrenness, are fit 
for nothing else but growing heather ; and where impiovements, 
such as those suggested, are carried so far as to encroach upon the 
grouse grounds, the plantations made, together with their influence 
on the climate, would favour an equivalent increase of other 
kinds of game. But before the heather is much encroached upon, 
there is room for a great deal to be done in the improvement 
of the existing grass land, much of which on the hill-side is in 
its present state of little value. 
An impression seems to prevail that because hills cannot < 
be ploughed, and made to grow corn, potatoes, and turnips, there 
is no resource but to leave them in a state of nature. All 
other things being equal, I have yet to learn that grass will not 
grow upon a hill-side as well as upon a plain, though, in the first 
instance, it may be necessary to bestow some pains on the 
preparation and cultivation of the soil. If the same efforts had 
been made to increase the production of our pasturage as 
