62 FOKESTS, WOODS, AND TKEES 



Association, in other cases, has taken the pit bank on lease. 

 When the spoil banks have been owned by District Councils 

 or other Corporations, the Association has supplied the 

 trees and given advice ; while the labour, which is nearly 

 always casual yet satisfactory, has been paid for by the 

 public bodies. In one case, the Moorcroft Plantation, the 

 Association has been helped by two grants, amounting in 

 all to £150, from the Development Commissioners. A 

 most interesting feature has been the starting of plantations 

 by about a dozen Board Schools. The Churchyard of West 

 Coseley has been planted, at the instance of the Association, 

 with 400 trees, which will in time grow into a small wood 

 of great value in improving the amenities of the landscape. 

 Waste land adjoining the sewage farm at Kidderminster 

 and the shale mounds beside the Stanfield Sanatorium have 

 been planted by the local authorities on plans suggested by 

 the Association. 



The manifold activities of a voluntary association are 

 here manifest. Unhampered by red tape, and with en- 

 thusiasm in lieu of pecuniary resources, such an association 

 has made valuable experiments of a varied character, based 

 on which more extensive work can be carried out in the 

 future, either by the local authorities or by the Forestry 

 Board, which we hope to see constituted after peace comes. 



Attempts were made at first to establish timber growth 

 on the mouuds by sowing broadcast the seeds of forest trees 

 in situ ; but this method proved a failure and was abandoned 

 after 1904. The planting of two- or three-year-old seedling 

 trees is now invariably the practice ; and the only seeds 

 now sown are those of shrubs like gorse and broom, which 

 are intended to act as temporary screens. Natural seedlings 

 of birch may, however, be seen on the big mound at 

 Timber Tree Colliery, Cradley Heath, which was planted 

 with birch in 1886. These seedlings, Mr. Martineau tells 

 me, creep north-east quite steadily, following up the fiery 

 part of the mound as the fire retreats. 



The technique of planting has been simple, the main 

 difficulty and expense being the proper fencing of the 



