AFFORESTATION OF CATCHMENT AREAS 85 
The Departmental Committee on British Forestry, which 
reported in 1902, drew the attention of local authorities, 
deriving their water supplies from gathering grounds owned 
by them, to the advantage and profits to be derived from 
planting the catchment areas with trees, not only to 
contribute to the retention of the rain and assist in 
regulating the water supply, but to help to purify the 
water and at the same time yield a regular income on the 
capital expended. In connection with this report the Local 
Government Board obtained a return in 1903, showing 
which of the local authorities owning waterworks had 
acquired the freehold or long leasehold of the catchment 
areas from which their water supplies were derived. This 
return, which was not published, showed that at that time 
5 joint boards and 74 town and district councils in England 
and Wales owned or had a long lease of a part or all of 
their gathering grounds (10). 
The Journal of the Board of Agriculture, xi. 468 
(November 1904), in an article on this subject, points 
out that such catchment areas must “be placed under the 
control of a competent forester, and inasmuch as they will 
be under corporate control, and less subject to change of 
management than land owned by private individuals, there 
is no reason why they should not also ultimately serve as 
demonstration forests and be available for the instruction 
of students. For example, the catchment areas of Liverpool 
and Birmingham waterworks situated in Wales, within 
reach of University Colleges possessing agricultural depart- 
ments, could, with the consent of the Corporations concerned, 
be used for these purposes; and a similar arrangement 
might be made with regard to certain areas in Yorkshire 
within reach of the University of Leeds.” 
In the same Journal tables were published showing 
the acreage and other particulars of the gathering grounds 
in Great Britain, which in 1904 were held as freehold 
or on long lease by local authorities. These tables, based 
on returns made in that year to the Board of Agriculture 
by the various municipalities, were confessedly incomplete, 
