vl FORESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 
applicable to this country. The concluding chapters of the 
book are accordingly, with great fitness for the times, 
devoted to a study of the afforestation of the extensive 
gathering grounds, from which so many of our great 
centres of population obtain their supplies of water. No 
pains have been spared in obtaining statistics and informa- 
tion as to the physical features, ownership, and extent of 
these gathering grounds. The work of planting suitable 
portions of these areas with the aid of disbanded soldiers 
might be undertaken at once, without any disturbance to 
other industries. Their afforestation in any case should be 
linked up with the general scheme of afforestation of the 
waste lands of Great Britain and Ireland, which it is con- 
fidently expected will be undertaken by the State as soon 
as peace is made. Scattered as the gathering grounds are 
throughout the country, they will form convenient centres 
for planting, more especially in the cases where their 
ownership has been acquired by local authorities. The 
compulsory purchase of catchment areas, which are not 
already owned by municipalities, is advisable for sanitary 
reasons; and the necessary legislation may possibly be 
introduced when afforestation by the State becomes a 
reality. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Much information concerning water catchment areas has 
been supplied by town clerks, engineers, and other municipal 
officers throughout the country, and to them my grateful 
thanks are now tendered. Messrs. J. & A. Leslie & 
Reid, Edinburgh; Mr. Joseph Parry, M.Inst.C.E., Consult- 
ing Engineer, Liverpool Waterworks; Mr. David A. Donald, 
Burgh Engineer, Grangemouth; Mr. C. H. Priestley, 
