82 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TEEES 



to acquire the land on their water catchment areas at a fair 

 value. The Lintrathen watershed, from which Dundee takes 

 most of its water supply, is 22,000 acres in extent ; but only 

 1000 acres have been purchased by the Dundee Water 

 Commissioners, and of this 200 acres have been success- 

 fully planted. As 8700 acres in the gathering ground are 

 below 1000 feet elevation, it is probable that a large forest 

 might be profitably created at Lintrathen. The great difficulty 

 lies in the exorbitant price that has been paid by Corpora- 

 tions for land compulsorily acquired. Mr. Baxter (7) urges 

 that " the burden of an extensive afforestation scheme can 

 only be equitably adjusted if State-aided. Government 

 aid need not necessarily be wholly in the shape of direct 

 financial assistance. Let us have a compulsory system 

 of land purchase for waterworks purposes or afforestation 

 purposes by local authorities, under which such land may 

 be obtained at something like its market value instead 

 of the present system, through the operation of which 

 communities are called upon to pay such high prices." 



The exorbitant prices paid by municipalities to land- 

 owners for waterworks sites and the like seem to be in 

 many cases grossly unfair. This is due in part to the heavy 

 costs of arbitration, and in part to the excessive sums 

 awarded by arbiters under what Mr. James Watson (8) 

 calls that intangible excrescence to the Land Clauses 

 Consolidation Act known as 'special adaptability.' In 

 England, Ireland, and Scotland " the claims set up under 

 this head for land good, bad, or indifferent (if it had to be 

 acquired ' under statutory powers for waterworks) were 

 such that land instantly appreciated to ten or twenty 

 times its agricultural value if needed for waterworks 

 on the grounds of the ill-defined pleas of ' special 

 adaptability.' " 



Value for ' special adaptability ' seems to have been first 

 claimed in the arbitration between the Countess Ossalinski 

 and the Manchester Corporation in regard to land around 

 Thirlmere. The award which was given, being about 120 

 years' purchase on the rental of the land and residence, was 



