The cost of forming plantations has been very carefully considered, and for all practical purposes may be put down at £5 per acre, taking the British Isles as a whole. Regarding financial returns from tree planting, there is overwhelming proof that land worth only from 1_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ per acre has been made to realise as much as 20_s._ per acre for fifty or sixty years, with a final crop worth from £50 to £75 per acre. Taking all the above points into consideration—the price of land, the cost of planting and the financial returns—it will amply repay the State to plant up uncultivated and waste lands. There should be no loss of time in setting about this work if we are to provide suitable employment for our returned soldiers and sailors and avoid the threatened timber famine which, according to well-informed quarters, is fast approaching. CHAPTER II COLLECTING AND STORING TREE SEEDS Owing to the war there is little doubt that for several years to come adequate supplies of seeds and young forest trees will not be available from their usual sources on the Continent. Vast quantities of both are annually sent to this country from Germany alone, while from other parts of the Continent coniferous seeds in particular are largely imported—in fact, we are almost wholly dependent for both seeds and seedlings on foreign supplies. Under these circumstances, it behoves the owners of woodlands in every part of the country to collect seeds, particularly of such trees as our plantations are mainly composed of. After these have been properly harvested, they should be stored away in suitable places till seed-sowing time in the spring. To some extent this will be a new forest industry, though for long, the seeds both of Scotch Pine and various hard-wooded trees, particularly the Oak, Ash and Elm, have been annually collected on various estates throughout the country, and the young plants raised from such stock have given every satisfaction when planted out permanently. For several reasons, however, we cannot compete with foreigners either in the production of seeds or in raising young forest stock. For some years to come, owing to the uncertainty of supplies from abroad, both seeds and seedlings are bound to be scarce and expensive. In the past, far too little attention has been bestowed on the collecting and harvesting of the seeds of trees and shrubs, the result, in not a few cases, being weak and unhealthy plants and an uneven and irregular crop. The best seeds, it should be remembered, are those collected from healthy trees in the prime of life, and grown under conditions favourable to their perfect development. An unhealthy tree will often bear a heavy crop of seed, but although the inducements to collect such are great, they should be discarded, those from the most robust specimens in the prime of life being chosen in preference.