66 FOKESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 



species can be established on pit and spoil mounds, im- 

 proving the amenities of the district and constituting a 

 hygienic measure of some importance. In other colliery 

 districts the lesson ought to be taken to heart. All 

 districts should organise themselves to supply the shortage 

 of timber that is certain in the future, instead of leaving 

 thousands of acres to waste which bring in no rent and no 

 profit. This work is capable of great extension, but in 

 localities with chemical works trees may prove un- 

 successful. 



The School Plantations of the Black Country may be 

 imitated in all parts of rural England and in the sister 

 countries. In some parts of France little forestry societies 

 (3) have been formed in connection with the schools, a 

 movement due to M. Mayet, schoolmaster at Avignon-l^s- 

 Saint-Claude (Jura). There were in 1910 about 200 of 

 these little societies, which develop among the children the 

 love of trees and the elements of forestry. Moreover, the 

 scholars themselves make plantations under the direction of 

 the teachers, and already in 1910 they had planted some 

 hundreds of acres and set out more than 2,000,000 trees 

 in the communal forests. Certain communes in the east 

 of France have set aside for the scholars experimental plots, 

 well fenced and netted, where experiments in planting and 

 raising seedlings have been carried out, resulting in some 

 cases in the initiation of improvements in the great forests. 

 In the regions of the Loire and Vosges some of the school 

 forestry societies have been given funds by generous donors, 

 which are applied to the acquisition of land for planting, the 

 proceeds of the woods so created being assigned to the 

 schoolmaster as a supplement to his pension. 



Just as the tiny seed may become a great tree, so these 

 little village and school societies may become the nucleus of 

 great social progress. To get the scholars and the teachers 

 into the open air, and in touch with farming, gardening, and 

 forestry, will be the great step towards the hygiene of the 

 Social Organism. 



I may here add some notes concerning the reclamation 



