104 



IRISH GARDENING 



The History of Irish 

 Forests and Forestry** 



By Captain Georgk Robinson, M.C. 



The utility of forests to a nation is one of the 

 economic factors to its well-being which has been 

 brought to an unforeseen and unexpected promi- 

 nence during the waging of the World War, and 

 perhaps to no other European nation has this 

 unlooked-for development proved so startling, 

 because so totally unexpected, as to ourselves. 

 Forestry in its general aspects, as it affects our 

 country both in peace or war, is a branch of econ- 

 omic industry of which the British public has 

 known very little in the past. And it is not sur- 

 prising that they should have remained in ignor- 

 ance of its importance, for we have no forests in 

 this country in the sense in which the forest is 

 understood in Europe and elsewhere in the world. 

 We have woodlands, and exceedingly pretty they 

 are, as we all know. Few things are more 

 picturesque than the Irish woodland, with its old 

 gnarled trees. They all hold a place of their own 

 in our hearts. But the rnison d'etre of theso 

 woodlands has been primarily connected with 

 providing shelter for the crops or stock of the 

 farm, for sport or for amenity purposes. They 

 are a part of our country, and there is no reason 

 why they should not, within certain limits, re- 

 main with us. But we did not think it necessary 

 to grow woods for purely commercial reasons — 

 that is, for the sake of the timber and pit-wood 

 and paper pulj) tliey would yield. W^e obtained our 

 requirements of these conmiodities by importing 

 them from abroad and relied on the Navy being 

 able to safeguard these imports. 



And we realised too late that we were living in a 

 fool's paradise of our own construction. The nation 

 as a nation had forgotten all its forefathers had 

 known about forestry, and even if they had not 

 done so, nuich of that knowledge would have 

 proved useless to them, for modern requirements 

 and conditions have, to a great extent, completely 

 changed. 



Now, it is useless to expect a public opinion to 

 form amongst a people and harden into a temper 

 which will see that it obtains what it realises to be 

 an obvious economic need — a necessity for its well- 

 being, even its preservation — unless that opinion 

 has been formed by a matured understanding of 

 its requirements. No genuine widespread effort 

 has been made to establish such an opinion. It is 

 true the Arboricultural Societies have done what 

 they could; but their exhortations were chiefly con- 

 fined to, or mainly reached those more or less 

 connected with forestry matters in this country, 

 proprietors of woods, their employees, agents, 

 foresters and timber merchants, the hitter's chief 

 interest lying in purchasing and felling the woods. 

 The mass of the people could, in the ordinary 

 nature of things, never have heard of these exhor- 

 tations and remain unaffected thereby. And let it 

 be said at once that those who preached could not 

 have had an inkling of how vital and serious this 

 problem was to become. The Governments who 

 have held office during the past quarter of a cen- 

 tury were without faith in the importance of the 



* Read before the Irish Forestry Society at its 

 Annual Meeting in the Royal College of Science, 

 Dublin, on 27th May, 1920. 



forestry problem and even questioned the necessity 

 of the existence of such a problem as an economic 

 factor in the national interests. 



There was a slow commi-ncement of a revival of 

 the question just previous to the outbreak of the 

 war, and only a very small fraction of the public 

 had ever heard of it. It is scarcely a matter for 

 surprise, therefore, that, when the war cloud burst 

 over Europe, this country, from the forestry point 

 of view, was totally unprepared. 



What was the result? Both Government and 

 l>ublic were amazed to discover that there was 

 something in this forestry problem, and that the 

 absence of timber supplies in the country was 

 going to prove a most troublesome thorn in one 

 side of the management of the war. The war has 

 brought home to Government and public alike the 

 realisation that the aims and ol)jects of forestry 

 and its economic imijortance to the country were 

 a sealed book to both. 



This evening it is not my intention to describe 

 what these aims are, and what is the utility of the 

 forest to a nation in the stress of war and in tinies 

 of peace, or to inquire what is the result of all this 

 to us as a nation and the object lesson it holds for 

 us, or to try to answer the question as to what is 

 the real utility of the maintenance of a proijortion 

 of a nation's land under connnercially managed 

 woods. I will, however, say that until the answers 

 to these questions are grasped by our public; initil 

 that public is educated to the point when the man 

 in the street could give you correct answers to such 

 questions, real progress in this forestry problem as 

 applicable to our country cannot be looked for. 



What do we know about the old forests of our 

 own coimtry, their past history, and the cause of 

 their disa])pearance. This forest history of ours 

 is fascinating, and it appears to be well worth 

 rescuing from the obscurity in which it has become 

 enshrouded. Our a.ncestors away back in our his- 

 tory knew all about the utility of forests so far as 

 their utility was understood at that day. They 

 utilised the forest to the full for their several jjur- 

 poses; the rich and powerful for the hunting and 

 the chase; the poor to obtain from it certain neces- 

 saries of their existence. And for these ends the 

 forests were maintained, and even added to. And 

 in later days, when the forests had come to assume 

 a definite position in the economic life of the Euro- 

 pean nations, our forefathers were not behind the 

 others. Our forestry studied the requirements of 

 the people and grew the timber crops and coppice 

 crops to sujjply the market demands of the period. 

 And it grew them in the best possible juanner, as 

 those resi)onsible for the up-keep of our old wooden 

 navy, v/hich depended upon them, were fully 

 aware. It is only during the last century and a 

 half that we gradually lost the forestry art of keep- 

 ing pace with the times and changes of markets. 

 There were reasons for the decadence of our 

 forestry, but it has resulted in our present-day 

 almost total ignorance, as a people, of forestry 

 methods. (1) 



The statistics of forestry in Ireland, have been 

 compiled with great fulness, and are readily access- 

 ible. No useful purpose would, therefore, be 

 served by reciting them this evening. What is 

 wanted is experiment and experience in the physi- 

 cal conditions of the country and its actual s 

 ability for planting; and both of these fundamental 

 necessities are being supplied through the working 

 of the Forestry Branch of the Department of Agri- 

 culture at present in process of being taken over 

 by the Forestry Commission. 



