80 POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 



and improved. The work of reclamation would begin 

 with the construction of roads. The better land by the 

 stream courses would be prepared for arable cultiva- 

 tion by drainage and the use of basic slag and lime ; the 

 steep slopes would be best utilized for forestry ; while 

 the higher land would be still left as sheep walks, to be 

 improved by the occupier as time went on. After the 

 preliminary operations, what would be aimed at would 

 be the creation of small farms of 150 acres or so of the 

 better land, 20 to 30 acres of which would be under the 

 plough and the rest improved grass, while to each farm 

 would be attached a stretch of sheep walk above the 

 forest. The forestry and the farming would react 

 favourably on one another, as the forest would provide 

 for the occupiers of the farms winter occupation in 

 planting and maintenance, the labour for which would 

 be otherwise unobtainable in those districts. The rela- 

 tive proportion the forests would bear to the farms 

 would depend upon the configuration and elevation ol 

 each district. It is not possible to frame any general 

 estimate of the expenditure and returns for reclamation 

 of this kind, but as the rentals run as high as 12s. an 

 acre for farms in Wales on precisely the same class of 

 land, and at similar elevations as that which, in its 

 unimproved state, only commands is. to is. 6d. per 

 acre, and the buildings and fences cannot be set at more 

 than £4 an acre on the existing farms, there is a con- 

 siderable margin for expenditure. The cost of the roads 

 should not be wholly debited to the reclamation, as they 

 will to a large extent be paid for in the increasing rating 

 of the area. None but schemes on a large scale, how- 

 ever, offer prospects of ultimate success, and some time 

 would elapse before they became paying propositions. 



