74 Tree Planting in the Black Country. 



deciduous larch is a better subject, but this has not proved 

 satisfactorj' in other ways. Where tlie district is actually clear 

 of working mines and smoking chimmeys it is possible to 

 establish plantations of conifers. At Pelsall there are many 

 plantations of spruce on pit mounds, whilst Scotch pines can be 

 used where the banks are not of clay. 



The practical aspects of this tree planting are of the greatest 

 importance. One of the chief objects of the Association has 

 been to prove to the business community that it is worth while 

 from a commercial standpoint to make fore?ts on this waste 

 land. At the Royal Agricultural Show at Shrewsbury last year 

 the Midland Reafforesting Association had a stand, and made 

 the following exhibitions. 



1. Maps and plans showing the area planted, and the area 



to be planted. 



2. Photographs showing the growing of the various species 



in existing plantations. 



3. Tops and bottoms of logs of various kinds of trees 



marketable in the Birmingham districts. 



4. 30 or 40 different objects made in great numbers in the 



Birmingham district from the timbers in question. 

 0. Spade handles imported from America while Ash is 

 now being grown in one particular instance within 

 100 yards of the factory where the spades themselves 

 are made. 



For this exhibit the Midland Reafforesting Association w^as 

 awarded the bronze medal. 



The Midland Reafforesting Association has carried out a 

 good deal of w^ork during the ten years or so of its existence. 

 Hardly a year has passed without the forming of several 

 plantations, some of the most successful of which are eloquent 

 of what could be done in the way of forest making in the Black 

 Country. Many colliery owners have approached the Associa- 

 tion on the question of planting their waste ground. The 

 Association is planting so that it may be able to point to profit- 

 able plantations formed under considerable difficulties, as an 

 encouragement, not only to those who live in mining districts, 

 but also to people more favourably situated who own land 

 which nnght be profitably put under trees. Still further, 

 the Association with the aid and countenance of various 

 education authorities is hard at w^ork instilling into the minds 

 of the coming generation the importance of forestry from a 

 national standpoint. As well, too, the children are taught to 

 reverence trees and refrain from any wilful damage, a 

 matter of the greatest importance in a thickly populated 

 distfiet. To help in these directions several plantations have 



