More Afforestation Following its decision to afforest certain areas in
the east and north, both of which have inspired a good deal of public protest, the Forestry Commission now proposes, according to a letter in The Times of February t7th, to plant another large belt on the Sussex Downs. This land, lying east of the Cuckmere valley, between the villages of West Dean and Jevington, is reported to be of solid chalk, with only a few inches of soil, and covered only with the incomparable down- land grass and large patches of gorse. It is said that trees have never grown there and that they never will, and that afforestation can only produce a jungle of rank and inflammable bramble and grass. I have no tloubt the Forestry Commission can produce all sorts of platSIble reasons for its action both here and in other areas, but it passes my comprehension why it so often chooses to afforest areas already notable for a special beauty of their own and which are so often reported to be unsuitable for trees. If the Forestry Commission would go to certain rural districts of Midland England, to name only one area, they would find there thousands of acres, now derelict, on some of which, to my knowledge, neither plough nor beast has made a mark for the last ten or fifteen years. These areas, now covered by bramble and haw and twitch and coltsfoot, have never had any special beauty of their own. Moderate afforestation there would be a godsend. It would be a transformation to some of the least exciting, least loved and apparently least respected English countryside.
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