AFFOKESTATION OF CATCHMENT AEEAS 103 



By the spring of 1914 the area of the plantations had 

 been increased to 550 acres. In 1913 a further develop- 

 ment was under discussion with the Board of Agriculture, 

 who submitted a scheme for the planting of 761 acres 

 additional over a period extending to the season 1929-1930, 

 or a little over 50 acres annually. The Corporation, while 

 adopting this scheme as a plan to be generally followed, 

 ultimately decided to proceed independently of any loan 

 from or partnership with the Board of Agriculture or 

 Development Commissioners. Since the outbreak of the 

 war this plan has been interfered with owing to lack of 

 labour; and the additional area planted has been about 40 

 acres only, making the total area under plantation in May 

 1917 about 590 acres. Mr. E. A. Lees, Secretary to the City 

 of Birmingham Water Department, to whom I am indebted 

 for this information, states that the whole of the lands 

 available for plantation in the Elan Valley are comprised 

 in the scheme of the Board of Agriculture and amount to 

 about 1300 acres. This seems to be a small proportion 

 indeed of the 45,562 acres included in the catchment area ; 

 but the explanation is given in the following statement 

 made by Mr. Lees at the Afforestation Conference of 1907 

 (Pari. Paper, No. 98, p. 41): "There is difficulty in 

 obtaining land for planting. Although we control the 

 whole of our gathering grounds, there are other rights in 

 it ; there are, for instance, the rights of the commoners. 

 We can control as regards the surface. Consequently the 

 areas which hitherto we have been able to utilise for 

 planting have been confined to our own freeholds and 

 commons which were already within the limits of our 

 works. If planting is to be carried out to any considerable 

 extent, it will certainly be necessary to give facilities for 

 the recovery of common lands." 



The Eeconstruction Forestry Report, 1918, p. 94, states 

 that a survey made by the Board of Agriculture disclosed 

 6800 acres suitable for afforestation on the Elan catchment 

 area. 



A full account of the Elan watershed, with plan and 



