194 FORESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 



1. In Oxenhope and Denholme Parishes, 1090 acres, 

 acquired at a cost of £44,464 for the purpose of protect- 

 ing and preserving the purity of the water drawn from 

 Denholme Moor and Thornton Moor. These lands were let 

 in 1906, under restrictive clauses as to manuring and tillage, 

 to thirty-six tenants at an average annual rent of 15s. per 

 acre. Forest timber has not been grown, and no planta- 

 tions exist on the owned lands or on any other part of these 

 areas, the elevation of which varies from 800 feet at Leem- 

 ing to 1325 feet at Spring Hall. 



2. In Lower Nidderdale, 618 acres, at 460 to 1000 feet 

 elevation, acquired at a cost of £13,850, and let in 1906 to 

 three tenants at an annual rent of 16s. per acre. 



3. In Upper Nidderdale, 7051 acres, including 109 

 acres at Lofthouse, acquired at a cost of £2050 and let as a 

 farm at £50 yearly. The remaining 6942 acres, acquired 

 for £71,838, range in elevation from 900 feet at Woodale 

 to 2300 feet on Whernside. This is wild and bleak in 

 winter, and without any trees, being devoted to grazing 

 black-faced hill sheep in summer, and grouse shooting in 

 autumn. 



Proposals of afforestation of all these catchment areas 

 were strongly opposed by the engineer, Mr. James Watson, 

 from whose report on 19th January 1906 to the Bradford 

 Waterworks Committee the preceding particulars of owner- 

 ship are taken. His main contention was that on the 

 higher elevations forest trees would certainly fail to grow, 

 and that at lower altitudes they could scarcely be grown 

 with profit. He raised one objection : the disturbance of 

 the peat by planting operations. The Thornton Moor area, 

 where the peat is abraded and exposed, imparts to the rains 

 an acidity that unless neutralised by constant treatment 

 acts on lead pipes. He considered that the digging of 

 3000 pits per acre, and the cutting of the necessary drains 

 in the peaty subsoil, would for years render difficult the 

 treatment of the water, and entail serious risk of lead 

 poisoning. He did not believe that tree-planting was work 

 calculated to give more than very short and temporary 



