THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
notably the depreciation of sheep -farming, which at one time was the 
most flourishing business in the north. We need scarcely discuss the 
causes that have produced the failure as a business to raise sheep in large 
numbers, but it was found that landlords could no longer stand a depre- 
ciation of rents, which varied from forty to seventy per cent in reduc- 
tion. 
It is certain, therefore, that a half of the land at least now occupied by 
deer forests and employing the greater part of the local population, could 
not be used for anything at all were it not utilized as it is. The accusation 
that deer forests have led to depopulation has been proved to be false, for 
from areas where most of the deer forests exist there has been a great 
emigration to Canada and the Argentine during recent years, whilst 
those who have remained have generally found local employment in the 
deer forests or grouse moors. The Royal Commission of 1883 testified 
that “ they had not had any evidence of evictions for deer forest purposes 
established before them,” nor after searching inquiry could they “ bear out 
the allegation that by the displacement of sheep, for deer, the food supply 
of the nation has been diminished.” Mr George Malcolm, in his excellent 
” List of Deer Forests in Scotland, 1912,” also proves that an overwhelming 
proportion of the land given up to deer ‘‘ lies in elevation far above the 
range of profitable or possible cultivation. The sterility of these forest - 
grounds is further illustrated by the following notes of their height above 
the level of the sea, viz., seventy -four have their highest altitude between 
3,000 and 4,296 feet, sixty-one between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, forty-one 
between 1,000 and 2,000 feet, and only twenty-two have their highest 
altitude below 1,000 feet.” 
The popular cry to-day of the theoretical economist and philan- 
thropist is always “ back to the land,” and “ cheap land for the people 
who are the rightful owners of the soil.” It all sounds very well to the 
man in the street, who knows as much about farming and the hills of 
Scotland as he does about the solar system, but there are many factors 
which go to make the realization of the scheme impossible. In the first 
place the young men themselves of the farms and crofts no longer wish 
to settle in the home valleys but rather gravitate towards the colonies, 
or the more cheerful and often better -paid industries of town life. Even 
the business of the small holder, near to towns, with his poultry farming, 
milk walks, fruit -raising and market gardening, is far more profitable 
and more cheerful than the lonely life of the hill -crofts, where life means 
74 
