IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XII 



No. 137 



Editor-J. W. Besant 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



JULY 



•OTAJf>&4k 



Forestry* 



At the recent annual meeting of the Irish 

 Forestry Society Mr. A. C. Forbes, Chief In- 

 spector of Forestry in Ireland, gave a brief 

 address, alluding to the enormous amount of 

 timber at i^resent required by the military 

 authorities, the shameful scarcity of home- 

 grown material, and our lamentable dependence 

 on importations, at present largely cut off owing 

 to the exigencies of war. By means of diagrams 

 Mr. Forbes showed how small our wooded area 

 is compared with Continental countries and how 

 great our importations in peace times. Since 

 the war began enormous quantities of timber 

 have been felled at home to suppl}^ the urgent 

 needs of the armj', and what this means in a 

 country such as Ireland, now comparatively 

 bare of timber, can only be realised by those 

 who know the well-managed State forests of 

 other countries. 



It is absolutely imperative that the shortage 

 in our forest area should be made good at the 

 earliest possible moment. Until the war is over 

 it may not be possible to \'ote any large sum of 

 money for the purpose, but one thing can be 

 done, and that is the public must be made to 

 realise that reafforestation is an urgent national 

 question affecting the material prosperity of 

 everyone of us. To this end everj^ qualified 

 person should feel it a duty to continually keep 

 the subject in the mind of every citizen. Private 

 individuals should lose no opportunity of urging 

 reafforestation on every possible occasion. 

 Municipal Councils, County Councils, and LTrban 

 and Rural District Councils ought to pass a 

 resolution at every meeting calling on the 

 Government to make reafforestation one of the 

 first problems to be tackled when the war is 

 over. We do not believe in appealing to the 



Government, when in many cases private aufl 

 local enterprise could achieve much, but in our 

 opinion reafforestation will only be a success 

 when taken in hand by the Government and 

 worked as a national industry. There is no lack 

 of competent Foresters who have in the past 

 pointed out what would surely happen in the 

 event of overseas supplies being cut off, and who 

 have submitted scheme after scheme for Govern- 

 ment approval, but the result has been invari- 

 ably the same —the Treasury would not provide 

 the money. 



The national expenditure during the last three 

 years has been something stupendous, far 

 beyond the comprehension of the average man, 

 but it may have a good effect on the ofificial 

 mind. Recently millions have been disbursed 

 with far more alacrity than hundreds were before 

 the war. Is it too much to hope that with the 

 return of peace, the doors of the Treasury will 

 be less tightly closed against all appeals for 

 monej'- to carry out works of the most imperative 

 national importance ? 



Every man (and woman) who has a vote 

 should make it a duty to ensure that all candi- 

 dates for Parliament or council are pledged to 

 support reafforestation ; every successful candi- 

 date should seize every opportunity of urging 

 the claims of forestry as a great national 

 industry. The rural population from the school 

 onwards must be taught to regard forestry as a 

 healthy remunerative occupation far more 

 valuable than turbary rights or any other rights, 

 which in many parts of the country hamper 

 proo-ress and bring the best planned schemes to 

 naught. The members of the Irish Forestry 

 Society should be among the foremost in pressing 

 the claims of reafforestation. The Scottish 



