WASTE LANDS 33 
The soils afforested are principally of two types, 
viz. shale or “‘ clunch,’”’ and carbonaceous shale, which, 
as it contains much coal slack, is apt to fire and burn 
into a friable red soil. The cultivation is of the simplest. 
Pits are dug one spit deep, the surface vegetation is 
placed at the bottom and the young tree filled in. The 
labour has been of the casual type, and has proved 
quite satisfactory. The cost of planting averages £6 
per acre, with about ts. per linear yard for fencing (1742 
trees per acre, i. e. five feet apart). 
The most successful of the trees planted include the 
alders (Alnus glutinosa and A. incana), black poplar, 
sycamore, willows, wych elm, birch and robinia. 
Plantations dating from 1904-1908 are now eighteen to 
twenty-four feet in height, whilst black poplars which 
surround some of the plantations have reached a height 
of thirty feet. The impression created on the mind by 
a visit to these afforested pit-mounds is a very agreeable 
one indeed, the dirt and desolation everywhere throwing 
into strong relief these bosky woodlands, which in ful- 
ness of time will doubtless extend through the length 
and breadth of the Black Country. A very great merit 
of this scheme is its conception on genuine forester’s 
principles. The enterprise is no mere plan for tidying 
up and beautifying the district—laudable though such 
would be—but a definite and successful effort to grow 
trees for profit. The district round about is hungry 
for small timber. Thus birch and alder fetch good 
prices for making handles for the innumerable objects 
produced in the locality, whilst poplar is in demand 
for brake-blocks. 
The moving spirit in the affairs of the Association 
D 
