THE PLANTING OF WASTE LAND FOR PROFIT. 267 
Fund” by means of guaranteed 23 per cent. stock, much in the 
same way as is laid down for the Irish Land Purchase Fund in 
sects. 28 to 36 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, the management of 
the fund being vested in the Land Commission forming part of 
the duties of the Board of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry 
From this fund all loans granted to private landowners for 
planting (under the Settled Land Act, 1882, or other Acts; see 
below) could be issued at the rate of 3 per cent. without any loss 
to the nation as lender and with much advantage to the land- 
owners as borrowers. 
Under the Local Government (County Council) Act, 1888, sect. 65 gives 
‘* Power to acquire lands,” while sects. 79 to 82 provide for the appointment 
of a Committee with, power to acquire land and make regulations for the 
proceedings of Committees. But new legislation in the form of a Bill for the 
Improvement of Woods and Plantations and the Planting of Waste Land will, 
of course, be necessary to obtain any satisfactory enactment regarding the 
extensive acquisition of waste land for planting, and the formation of a ‘‘ Waste 
Land Planting Fund” and of a Forestry branch of the Board of Agriculture 
and Fisheries. 
Among the existing disabilities and discouragements to plant- 
ing which require to be removed before there can be any reason- 
able hope of inducing municipal, corporate, or private landowners 
to plant extensively, the following matters may be specified as 
those which ought to be dealt with either by legislation or else 
by improved administration, or by both of these means :— 
(1) Want of funds. 
(2) Valuation of woodlands and plantations for estate and 
succession duties, and for local rates. 
(3) Risk of damage by rabbits. 
(4) Higher railway charges than for foreign timber. 
(5) Risk of fire caused by railway-engine sparks. 
(1) Want of funds has always been the chief obstacle to plants 
ing, and monetary assistance is the form of State-aid now most 
required by corporate bodies and private landowners desirous of 
planting for profit. 
Under the Land Improvement Act, 1864, the improvement of 
land by planting was confined (sect. 9) solely to ‘“ Planting for 
Shelter”; and owners of land were only able, with the sanction 
of the Commissioners for the execution of the Act, to charge 
their estates for the planting of woods and trees in cases where 
