AFFORESTATION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 14I 



foresters. In April 1908, this Committee's Report was issued. 

 It is by far the most business-like and practical afforestation 

 and timber-planting scheme that has as yet been suggested 

 for any of the four countries forming the United Kingdom. 

 It recommended the acquisition of sufficient land (including 

 some of the existing 300,000 acres of woodland) to provide 

 for the formation of about 700,000 acres of woods and 

 plantations, of which about 200,000 acres or more should be 

 State forests in large blocks, while about 500,000 acres of 

 smaller areas should be under County Councils or in private 

 ownership. The weakest point in this scheme is, it seems to 

 me, that it is not intended to confine planting operations to 

 waste land and really poor grazing tracts worth only about 

 a shilling an acre, but it recommends the afforestation of 

 grazing land worth about 3s. 6d. per acre on the average, and 

 usually capable of improvement. Anyhow, what is of vast 

 practical importance, it very plainly indicates how, in the 

 Committee's opinion, the money for carrying out this Irish 

 afforestation scheme should be obtained. These proposals 

 are still under consideration, though over a year has now gone 

 by without any pronouncement having as yet been made on 

 the subject by Government. 



The fourth and last inquiry was that instituted after the 

 Association of Municipal Corporations had (in 1907) pressed 

 upon the notice of Government " its opinion that the time has 

 now arrived when the question of afforestation should be 

 seriously considered," through the enlargement of the Royal 

 Commission on Coast Erosion to report whether " it is desirable 

 to make an experiment in afforestation as a means of increasing 

 employment during periods of depression in the labour 

 market, and, if so, by what authority, and under what 

 conditions, such experiments should be conducted." Its Report, 

 submitted on 4th January 1909, went far beyond the terms of 

 reference as regards " an experiment in afforestation," and 

 recommended the afforestation and planting of 9,000,000 acres, 

 mostly grazing land at present, within the next sixty years, at 

 a rate of 150,000 acres a year, and at a cost of ^^13, 6s. 8d. 

 per acre, ;^6, 13s. 4d. being -for the freehold and ^6, 13s. 4d. 

 for the expenses of afforestation, or ^2,000,000 annually — 

 though it also outlined a smaller scheme for afforesting and 

 planting 75,000 acres annually at a total cost of ;!^i, 000,000 



