1883.] FOBESTRY THE PIONEER OF AGEWULTUEE. 125 



FORESTEY THE PIONEER OF AGRICULTURE* 



aiN" an age and at a time when agitators and legislators are so much 

 H occupied by questions affecting land and land tenure, and the laws 

 ^ and regulations applied thereto, I think we may be excused from 

 making a few remarks on the question of forestry as necessarily 

 connected with, and practically inseparable from, all legislation bearing 

 upon land. We have had in the Sister Isle a superabundance of 

 agitation connected with land. Indeed, I think the land (question may 

 justly be said to contain the alpha and omega of the various measures 

 of concession and coercion which have been passed by our present and 

 former legislators, having special application to the Emerald Isle. I 

 do not intend dealing to-day with the question that I have taken the 

 liberty of bringing before this meeting from a political point of view, 

 neither do I purpose discussing the question of the policy of the 

 present Government as it regards the land question, but I refer to 

 what may be justly cited as the want of a policy in England as it 

 regards forestry, which is of paramount importance to the nation at 

 large. In forwarding the progress of agriculture and its interests, how 

 many laws and regulations have found their way into the statute 

 book, not only as regards Ireland, but having special application to 

 England, yet how many enactments have found a place on the 

 statute book T)earing directly upon forestry, how many animated 

 debates and how many eloquent appeals have been made on behalf of 

 forestry ? Is the question of less importance than many which excite 

 the attention and demand the consideration of our senators, or is it that 

 foresters as a class are a long-suffering and patient class, and tliat many 

 of their views, though firmly held and built upon a good sound basis, 

 have not been so fuUy given expression to, and exploded as they ought to 

 have been. However, I am glad to be able to remind this meeting 

 that the claims of the subject upon our legislators and the mass of 

 mankind are now being pressed home, and that we have two able 

 exponents of the subject in the House of Commons. I refer to Sir 

 John Lubbock, M.P. for London University, and Dr. Lyons, M.P. for 

 Dublin, the former contending for an extension of Forests in 

 England, Scotland, and Wales, and the latter for the re-afforesting of 

 Ireland. How tenable the arguments used, and how sound the 

 positions these gentlemen hold, may be easily understood when we 

 compare the area of land under woods and forests in the United 

 Kingdom as contrasted with the area occupied by timber in other 



* A Paper read at a meeting of the members of the English Arboricultural Society by 

 Mr. W. Fell, of the firm of Messrs. W, Fell and Co., Nurserymen, Wentworth 

 Nurseries, Hexham. 



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