1909.] Land Available for Afforestation. 45 



counties of England, Scotland, and Wales, and furnish a 

 report to the Commission on the question." The Commis- 

 sion suggested that such of the area returned as " Mountain 

 and heath land used for grazing " as lies below the 1,500 ft. 

 contour line in the selected counties should be reported upon, 

 and that the selected counties should be Wiltshire, Suffolk, 

 Derbyshire, Glamorganshire, Lancashire, and Lanarkshire. 



An inquiry on these lines was accordingly undertaken, 

 and a copy of the Report of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries on the information obtained, together with the 

 reports furnished to the Board by their special inspectors, are 

 printed as an Appendix to the evidence published by the 

 Commission (Vol. II., Part II., Cd. 4461, price 5s. 3d.). 



It appears that the total area (excluding water) of Great 

 Britain according to the latest figures of the Ordnance 

 Survey (revised August 31st, 1908) is 56,199,980 acres. Of 

 this, the acreage under crops and grass — i.e., what is usually 

 termed the cultivated area — amounts to 32,2x1,386 acres. A 

 further area of 2,768,243 acres (as returned in 1905) is wood- 

 land, and of the remainder 12,801,974 acres are returned as 

 " mountain and heath land used for grazing." It will thus 

 be seen that 8,418,377 acres remain unaccounted for in the 

 Agricultural Returns. A very large proportion of this un re- 

 turned land is appropriated for urban requirements, while 

 railways, roads, mines, quarries, and other industrial opera- 

 tions absorb in the aggregate a considerable portion of the 

 surface of the country. The extent of land within the boun- 

 daries of boroughs and urban authorities in England and 

 Wales, and of Royal, municipal, and police burghs in 

 Scotland, amounts approximately to 4,000,000 acres. Some 

 of this, though probably a small proportion, is included in 

 the Agricultural Returns. 



According to a computation made by the Board, about 

 3>537> I 72 acres of the total surface of Great Britain lie above 

 the 1,500-feet level. Although such part of this elevated 

 land as is used for grazing should properly be returned, it 

 may be assumed that a large part would not be so used. 

 Probably a considerable proportion of the area occupied by 

 deer forests would come within this computed area. 



\\ may be added that, according to a return of 1874 (LLC. 



