1S85.] THE IRISH FOREST PROBLEM. 247 



especially suitable to the apple and pear. Oak bark was very valu- 

 able for tanning. Charcoal might be extensively produced, and 

 used in manufacturing gunpowder, dyes, and polish. 



More trees would obviate the present scarcity of birds, which is 

 injurious to agriculture. Further, trees planted along rivers would 

 tend to preserve the fish by providing shade. The great western 

 shelter belt from the Giant's Causeway southwards, Professor 

 Howitz said, would prevent deterioration of the soil, as well as 

 modify the climate in the interior of the country. It should be 

 a State operation, and the funds supplied from the Treasury, 

 though administered by a Central Board in Dublin. To plant 

 four millions of acres in Ireland would cost £20,000,000, and the 

 money would be profitably expended. The cost of slit-planting on 

 hilly ground would be about £5 an acre, and on low ground about 

 £6 or £7. If willows were planted, after three years they would 

 commence to realize £3 an acre, and rise to £20 an acre. Oak 

 should be planted in the interior lowlands, and would give a return 

 in from fifteen to twenty years after planting. Pines could be 

 grown along the mountain-sides down to the water's edge. One acre 

 in four should be forested, so that out of the 20,000,000 acres inland 

 5,000,000 should be forested. An important cottage industry 

 might be created by osier-weaving. It was a fact that a very large 

 quantity of the soil of Ireland was being wasted every year, and 

 this could be checked by a certain amount of protective planting. 

 It would not be too much to say that if proper care had been 

 talcen to preserve the forests of Ireland, as they existed 200 

 years ago, Ireland would now have forests to the value of 

 £100,000,000. 



Professor Howitz would have a paternal Government buy the 

 land necessary for tliese great forestal reforms ; or compel the 

 proprietors to use their lands for this national purpose, of course 

 under direction of the proposed public board. This fashion of 

 avoiding the main difficulty of the problem is simply continental. 

 And we suspect that evidence as to the admirable methods in 

 which provincial associations like the Danish Turf and ]\Ioor Society 

 assist individual efforts in sylviculture would have been more appro- 

 priate than magnificent schemes, sonaewhat approaching " tall talk." 

 We indicate elsewhere that the Indian Forest Department, when 

 placed in the position of requiring to purcliase private lands for 

 their Imperial schemes in Bengal, have found themselves in an 

 intricate operation. Are we prepared to obtain the land necessary 

 for the scheme by drastic measures in Ireland ? Indeed there, as in 

 America, an extensive popular education as to tlie advantages of 

 governmental forestry must precede any beneficial legislation. How 



