Afforesting Waste Lands and Financial Returns 287 



possessions will partly fill up the gap, but this is not the case. 

 Indian timber, principally teak, is not in request to any 

 appreciable extent, while the great African forests are hard- 

 woods, and as a rule unsuited to our wants. The forests of 

 South America are on a par with those of India and Africa, 

 while China and Japan, as also Australia, require more 

 : timber than they possess. 



Cost of suitable Land for Afforesting. When in the 

 past the question of afforesting has been brought forward, 

 the usual outcry has been that suitable land is too expen- 

 sive to buy. But this argument will no longer suffice, for, 

 as I have before pointed out, excellent land for the cultiva- 

 tion of high-class timber can be procured in considerable 

 quantity at about 2 per acre. Through the kindness of 

 Lord Ancaster's estate agent, I have been allowed to look 

 over the sale contracts of several parts of the Gwydyr Estate, 

 in Carnarvonshire, 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 other adjoining lands clearly evidenced. Again 

 the Crown recently purchased 12,500 acres in Scotland at 

 the modest rental of about 2 per acre. Other instances 

 could be quoted, but the above suffice to show that land 

 in every way suited for profitable tree planting can be 

 bought at probably less than 2 per acre. 



It is perhaps unfortunate that many of these waste lands 

 are private property, the owners of which, even if they could 

 afford it, have little inclination to sink for a period of, say, 

 twenty-five years the necessary capital required to be ex- 

 pended on the formation of plantations. But all this would 

 be obviated by State ownership of the woodlands. Private 

 individuals, or, indeed, public bodies, labour under many 

 disadvantages in respect of afforestation, not the least, as 

 before stated, being the quarter of a century required before 

 the money expended in planting can be even partially 

 recovered, while a systematic method of cultivation and 

 large wooded areas are first necessities to successful timber 

 culture. It is therefore preferable in every way that the 

 Government should take up the question of tree planting 



