§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S. W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury what steps, if any, have been taken to give effect to the suggestion of the Departmental Committee on Forestry in 1902, that the Woods and Forests Department should plant suitable waste lands under the control of the Crown or over which the Crown exercises manorial rights.
§ MR. MCKENNAThe greater part of what are called waste lands belonging to the Crown are in Wales and are, generally speaking, at too high an altitude and much too exposed for planting. For these reasons and especially owing to the fact that rights of common exist over the whole of the waste lands over which the Crown exercises manorial rights, it has not been found practicable to plant any of them, except in one instance in Merionethshire, where the Crown acquired the adjacent farms. In that case about twenty-two acres of the waste lands have been planted, in addition to portions of the adjoining farm lands, amounting in all to about 105 acres. This, of course, involved giving notice to quit to the tenant. It is in contemplation to plant about another sixty-one acres of waste as a further experiment. The altitude is over 1,000 feet above the sea.
§ LORD BALCARRES (Lancashire, N., Chorley)Can the hon. Gentleman say what the altitude is, in the opinion of the Treasury, above which it is considered unsuitable to plant in the British Islands?
§ MR. MCKENNAThat would depend on the latitude.
§ MR. ALEXANDER CROSS (Glasgow, Camlachie)Is it on account of the altitude that planting is not going on?
§ MR. MCKENNAThat is so.
§ MR. ALEXANDER CROSSA thousand feet?
§ MR. MCKENNAIn Wales.