It is perhaps unfortunate that many of these waste lands are private property, the owners of which, even if they could afford it, have little inclination to sink for a period of, say, twenty-five years the necessary capital required to be expended on the formation of plantations. But all this would be obviated by State ownership of the woodlands. Private individuals, or, indeed, public bodies, labour under many disadvantages in respect of afforestation, not the least, as before stated, being the quarter of a century required before the money expended in planting can be even partially recovered, while a systematic method of cultivation and large wooded areas are first necessities to successful timber culture. It is therefore preferable in every way that the Government should take up the question of tree planting on a large scale, the necessary land being available at a moderate cost per acre. =Cost of Forming Plantations.=—This will vary greatly with the manner in which the work is carried out, the particular district of the country, nature of soil and rate of wages paid, as also whether fencing and draining have to be engaged in. The difference in cost between “notch” and “pit” planting is very considerable, and the fact that the former method is almost exclusively adopted on the rough grounds throughout Scotland accounts mainly for the smaller first outlay on Scottish plantations. Thus at Grantown, Strathspey, the Countess of Seafield’s estate, Mr. Thomson, the very capable wood manager, has planted during the past forty-seven years upwards of 20,000 acres of woodlands, at a cost, including fencing, of rather under £2 per acre. In England, however, where, for various reasons, pit planting is adopted, and larger plants are used, the cost varies from £5 to £6 per acre. For all practical purposes, however, the cost of forming plantations may be put down at, say, £5 per acre, as an average taken from the following figures will show:— ENGLAND AND WALES. £ _s._ _d._ Yorkshire, at 600 ft. altitude, cost of planting and fencing per acre 4 18 9 Kent, fencing and planting ” 6 3 0 Lincolnshire ” ” ” 8 0 0 Gloucestershire ” ” ” 7 10 0 Carnarvonshire ” ” ” 5 2 0 SCOTLAND.