AFFORESTATION 321 



we read the Report of the Rural Develop- 

 ment Commissioners published in July 1911, 

 we naturally hoped, after Mr. Lloyd George's 

 early intimations as Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, that there would be a large grant 

 made for the reafforestation of waste land. 

 Instead, we learn that no grants are proposed 

 towards afforestation in England, because, 

 forsooth, expenditure on an enterprise so 

 new and so strange in modern England must 

 be preceded by careful survey ! One would 

 naturally have imagined that a survey would 

 have taken place by now after the Report by 

 the Royal Commission of Afforestation in 1909, 

 which made the statement that " afforestation 

 being practicable, and desirable, and 9,000,000 

 acres being available without material en- 

 croachment upon agricultural land, tlie best 

 rotation to secure sustained timber yields is 

 150,000 acres to be afforested annually." 



Why do we hear nothing more of this 

 definite proposal to afibrestate the 9,000,000 

 acres which could grow as much timber as 

 we import ? 



England and Wales are to be content 

 apparently for the present with tlie receipt 

 by tlie Commissioners of a comprehensive 



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