6 Practical Forestry 



and seedling plants for afforestation will all be greatly in 

 demand after the war when foreign supplies will not be 

 forthcoming. 



Regarding the most desirable centres at which to com- 

 mence planting operations, I would suggest those counties 

 where the greatest areas of waste lands exist, and where, in 

 addition, advantages are offered in the matter of cheap 

 land purchase, as well as in a demand for and easy removal 

 of the produce. Thus we have : 



England . Yorkshire and Northumberland with 1,010,924 



acres. 

 Scotland . Inverness and Argyleshire with 3,087,312 



acres. 

 Wales . Breconshire and Merionethshire with 461,320 



acres. 

 Ireland . Donegal and Kerry with 657,337 acres 



(exclusive of 172,436 acres of bogland). 



From these figures it will be seen that in case of necessity 

 we could get all the ground required for this afforesting 

 scheme in two of the counties of England and Scotland, or 

 in three of Wales and Ireland. 



The cost of procuring suitable land for afforesting pur- 

 poses need not be considered as any obstacle to the scheme. 

 From extensive inquiries made the price on an average 

 would not be greater than 2 per acre. Through the 

 kindness of the agent on the Gwydyr Estate, in Carnarvon- 

 shire, I have been allowed to look over the sale contracts 

 on several of the properties, and from these I find that 7,412 

 acres were disposed of at an average price of 2 2s. 3d. per 

 acre. The ground was excellent for the production of 

 timber, as the Larch on adjoining lands clearly evidenced. 

 Again, the Crown recently purchased 12,500 acres in Scot- 

 land at the modest rental of 2 per acre. Many other 

 instances could be quoted, but the above suffice to show 

 that land in every way suitable for the production of high- 

 grade timber can be bought at probably less than 2 per 

 acre. 



The cost of forming plantations has been very carefully 



