Viscountess Astorasked the Secretary of State for Scotland the numbers of owners of deer forests in Scotland who, at the request of their war agricultural committees, put extra sheep on to their ground, and the result of the experiments as a whole, or else for individual forests, so as to indicate how many, whether hogs and ewes, respectively, were put on the ground in the autumn of 1940; how many were accounted for at the June clipping of 1941; and the number of lambs which these ewes produced?
Mr. JohnstonThe number of sheep on deer forests in Scotland at the 4th June, 1941, was 85,378 as compared with 76,286 a year earlier and 50,426 at the 4th June,74W 1939. I am inquiring whether further detailed figures and information asked for in the Question can be easily obtained from the agricultural executive committees, and I will communicate with the Noble Lady thereafter.
Viscountess Astorasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what surveys of the summer-grazing capacity for cattle of the glens and valleys in deer forests have been made by any war agricultural committees since war began; whether he can state the estimated summer-grazing capacity shown by these surveys; which committees tried by advertising or other methods to get cattle put in these glens; and how many head of cattle were sent to the glens through each committee?
Mr. JohnstonThe agricultural executive committee for Inverness-shire (Mainland) classified all the deer forests in their district and other agricultural executive committees in the Highland area made inquiries into the capabilities of individual forests. In addition, the Scottish Land Court made surveys of over 70 deer forests in the autumn of 1940, and their reports show that on these forests there was scope for an immediate increase of some 450 cattle for permanent grazing and a further 1,660 for summering only. The agricultural executive committees for Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, and Sutherland have advertised the deer forest grazings available in their districts. The number of cattle on deer forests at 4th June, 1941, was 2,817 as compared with 2,786 at 4th June, 1940, and 1,593 at 4th June, 1939. The scarcity of suitable stock for putting on the forests has, of course, been a limiting factor.