CHAPTER VI 
AFFORESTATION OF PIT MOUNDS 
In the Black Country of South Staffordshire and North 
Worcestershire, smoke and flame are poured forth day and 
night from innumerable chimneys, rendering the atmosphere 
gloomy and unhealthy. Many spots, once green fields and 
woodlands, are now covered with pit mounds—great heaps 
of slag, shale, and coal waste (Fig. 8). These render 
the landscape desolate, as they are poorly clad with vegeta- 
tion, and assist by their depressing nature the bad effect of 
the atmosphere on the physical and moral health of the 
population. The efforts to afforest these barren heaps and 
cover them with the verdure of trees is an important 
hygienic measure. 
The Black Country has at least 50,000 acres of pit 
banks, about 14,000 acres of which are suitable for planting 
at the present moment; and the other coal-fields of Great 
Britain have many times this area available for afforestation. 
The Midland Reafforesting Association (1) was founded 
on 12th February 1903, with the idea of getting rid of 
the depressing desolation of the pit and factory rubbish 
heaps, and “to re-establish forestry as a business in the 
Midlands.” 
The plantations made by the Association, though only 
experimental and on a small scale, have been successful 
not merely in beautifying the landscape, but have also 
actually shown the possibility of producing profitably timber 
of a useful kind on these barren waste heaps. It is only 
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