COST OF FORMING PLANTATIONS 



the average cost, therefore, taking Great 

 Britain as a whole, would be less than 5 per 

 acre for fencing and planting the ground 

 Most of the above-named plantations were 

 formed on the very class of ground of which 

 we have so much lying idle or bringing in only 

 a few shillings rental per acre in various parts 

 of the country. The Eoss-shire plantation 

 referred to was a bleak and barren moorland 

 which the crofters, who used it as a common 

 for their cattle and sheep, refused to rent at 

 Is. per acre per annum; while at Strathspey 

 the 20,000 acres of land were let out previous 

 to planting at 8d. per acre per annum. Vast 

 tracts of the bare hill-sides of Wales are only 

 bringing in a few shillings of rental per acre, 

 special reference being made to the Snowdon 

 range of hills in the north and Cader Idris in 

 the south of the Principality. Near the 

 famous Penrhyn Slate Quarries, in Carnarvon- 

 shire, the writer formed several plantations 

 on land that gave an annual return of under 

 2s. 6d. per acre. The late Lord Power scourt, 

 who planted largely on his Irish estate, men- 



63 



