AFFORESTING WAS'lE LANDS. 



of land to engage in extensive planting operations, the 

 question naturally arises: What is the most feasible way 

 to overcome the difficulty ? 



In answer, and without the slightest hesitation, I would 

 say that the State should acquire and plant suitable waste 

 lands at the rate of 40,000 acres annually for a period of 

 twenty-five years, Such lands could, in England, Scotland 

 and Wales, be gradually and cheaply acquired by the 

 State with a change of proprietors; while in Ireland 

 vast tracts of peat bog would willingly be handed over to 

 the Government at the present time at a small cost per acre. 

 Taking the British Isles as a whole, the cost of procuring 

 suitable lands would be at an annual rental of about 

 8s. per acre, or 40s. per acre for purchase. On the Gwydyr 

 Estate, Carnarvonshire, 7,412 acres of l.and, described as rough 

 grazing and sheep walk, were lately sold by public auction 

 for 15,670, or at the rate of 2 2s. 3d. per acre. I have 

 little faith either in the State advancing money to landed 

 proprietors towards afforesting, or in Municipalities corning 

 to the front as planters of woodlands. The State only 

 can readily acquire the needed land in sufficient quantity 

 and on the best terms, and I am fully convinced that 

 plantations formed under this supervision will, in an 

 economic sense at least, be far ahead of those planted 

 either by private persons or public bodies. Again, the 

 resources and continuity of a nation will always make 

 the State the best and most desirable custodian of forest 

 property; indeed, regularity of action and large wooded 

 areas are first necessities to successful timber culture. 



The difficulty of housing and providing for the workmen 

 employed at afforesting out-of-the-way lands has been 

 brought to my notice, but from personal experience of 

 similar work in Scotland and Wales I anticipate littlr 

 difficulties in that way. In these cases, where a good 

 deal of the work was carried out by contract, the work- 

 men gladly walked to and from the adjoining villages 

 each day, often to a distance of three or four miles, 

 bringing their mid-day meal with them, which was heated 

 or cooked on the ground. Then, as the plantations 

 increase in age and size, and saw mills are required, the 



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