1 1 



IRISH GARDENING 



tlie effective assertion of the autliority of the Eng- 

 lish Crown throughout the island in the reign of 

 James I. Apart from all questions l)et\veen the 

 raet^s, it was as desirable as it was natural that 

 large districts formerly usurped by the forest 

 should be restored to agricidture, and hail the 

 clearances effected, first by the soldiers of Eliza- 

 beth and next by the i)lanters of James, ended 

 with those wliich followed the Restoration tlu're 

 would have been no great reason to complain. But 

 an era of confiscation was necessarily luifavoiu-able 

 to the development of the resources of the land; 

 and successive owners, threatened with the early 

 (Ictermii-.ation of their interest in their estates, 

 utilised the short period of possession to turn their 

 timber into gold. Thus the woods that had sur- 

 vive<l fell at an alarming rate, and the Government 

 were obliged to interfere. Accordingly, the Irish 

 statute Book, from the Restoration to the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, contains many measures 

 which had for their ol)ject the encouragement of 

 planting, and the replacing of the timber in dis- 

 tricts from which it had disapi)eared. Some of 

 these are of great interest. 



The earliest instance of legislation for the ]u-otec- 

 tion of trees was tlie application to Ireland by 

 Strafford of an English Statute of Elizabeth " to 

 avoid and prevent divers misdemeanours of idle 

 and lewd persons in barking of trees." An Act of 

 loth Charles I. (chap. 23) gives this measure force 

 in Ireland; but it appears to have been designed 

 merely for the protection of tlie orchards and 

 voung" trees in the plantation districts, and not to 

 have been directed to the conservation of the larger 

 woods. The seventeenth century had almost riu: 

 its course before any further statute was passed. 

 In 1698. however, the ministers of William III. 

 thought it was time to intervene. " An Act for 

 Planting and Preserving Timber Trees and 

 Woods " (10th Wm. III., cap. 12) recognises in its 

 preamble the operation of the causes to which have 

 been attributed the too ra])id destruction of the old 

 woods. It runs thus : — " Forasnuich as by the late 

 Rebellion in the Kingdom, and the several iron- 

 works formerly here, the timber is utterly de- 

 stroyed, so as tliat at present there is not sufficient 

 for the repairing of the houses destroyed, much 

 less a prospect of l)uilding and improving in after 

 times, unless some means be used for the planting 

 and increase of timber trees." 



The remedial measures prescribed by this Act 

 were as follows : — 



I. All resident freeholders, having Estates to the 

 value of £10 yearly and upwards, and all tenants 

 for years at a rent exceeding that sum. having an 

 unexpired term of 10 years, were required, under 

 a penalty, from and after March 25th. 170.'>. to 

 plant every year, for ;:il years, ten plants of 5 years' 

 growth of oak, fir. elm, ash, or other timber, and 

 owners of ironworks were required to plant 500 of 

 such trees annually, so long as the ironworks were 

 going. 



II. Every occupier of above 500 Irish acres was 

 retjuired to plant and enclose, within seven years 

 of the passing of the Act, one acre thereof, and 

 preserve the same as a plantation for at least 

 twenty years. 



III. All persons and Corporations seized of lands 

 of inheritance were charged with the planting of 

 their respective ])roportions of 260.600 trees yearly 

 of oak. elm. or fir for a period of ;>1 years.' The 

 proportions in which these trees were to be planted 

 in each county is set out in a list in the 4th Section 

 of the Act, and the proportion in which eacn 

 County should be planted was to be apportioned by 

 the Grand Juries by Baronies and Parishes al each 

 Summer Assizes. 



A further provision gave tenants ])lanting ])ur- 

 suaiit to the statute a right to one-third of the 

 timlier sq planted. This was increased by a later 

 Act to one-half. Between 1857 and 188.") almost six 

 million trees were registered in Ireland. There is 

 very little evid(>iice available to show how far this 

 ;\ct was comi)lied with, luit the registration of trees 

 through the Clcik of the Peace was a common 

 practice until quite recently. This Act of 

 William III. was followed by several passed in 

 the succeeding reigns with the same oliject. The 

 2nd Anne, cap. 2, abolished the duties on un- 

 wrought iron, bark, hoops, staves and timber, and 

 forbade ex])ortation of these commodities ex- 

 cept to England. And a further Act forbade the 

 ns(> of liome-grown gads or withes, or the erection 

 of May-poles of home growth. (18) The Acts, how- 

 ever, failed to produce the desired effect. Thomas 

 Prior attributed this failure to the insufficient in- 

 terest given to tenants in the trees planted l)y 

 them, and suggested that they should be en- 

 couraged by obliging owners, on the fall of leases, 

 to pay their tenants the timber value of all trees 

 planted by the latter. The Act 15 and 16 George 

 III., cap. XXVI., expressly recognised in its pre- 

 amble the failure of the earlier legislation, which 

 it accordingly repealed. It made fresh provision 

 for the preservation of trees and did something to 

 carry out Prior's views, which were zealously sup- 

 ported by the Royal Dublin Society, of which Prioi' 

 was one of the founders, and which has always been 

 honourably distinguished by the interest it has 

 displayed in the preservation of our woods. 



The stimulating criticism and suggestions of 

 Arthur Young, who visited Ireland about this time, 

 undoubtedly had much to do with the more en- 

 lightened views on the subject which, towards the 

 close of the eighteenth century, began to charac- 

 terise the majority of Irish land owners. " I have 

 made," says Young, " many very minute calcula- 

 tions of the expense, growth, and value of trees in 

 Ireland, and am convinced from them that thei'e 

 is no application of the best land in the Kingdom 

 will equal the profit of planting the worst of 

 it." (19) No more competent observer than Arthur 

 Young has ever applied a trained and cautious 

 intelligence to the consideration of the economic 

 problems of Ireland, and it is certain that, how- 

 ever wisely we may hesitate to adopt literally this 

 epigrammatic summary of his views on planting, 

 Y^oung's opinions were based on an unusually 

 thorough statistical investigation of the comitry, 

 coupled with an exceptionally wide knowledge of 

 agricultural conditions in other European coun- 

 tries. Young's ol)servations on the subject are the 

 more worth noting at this moment because he 

 bestowed much attention on the means of enlist- 

 ing the peasantry in the cause of planting, and 

 displayed a firm confidence that " instead of being 

 the destroyers of trees they might be made ])re- 

 servers of them." With this view he recommended 

 in his " Observations " that ])remiums should be 

 given to farmers who planted and jjreserved trees, 

 and suggested that the tenantry should l)e oliliged 

 to plant under a special clause in their leases, re- 

 quiring them to plant a given number of trees per 

 annum in proportion to the size of their holdings. 



The facts which have been brought together here 

 suffice to establish, not only that the traditions as 

 to the wooded state of Ii-elaud in very early times 

 are well founded; but that this characteristic of 

 our island was maintained in a large measure until 

 far into the seventeenth century. The first experi- 

 ment in Ireland of planting on a large scale in 

 recent times was carried out })y the Congested 

 Districts Board at Knockboy, near Carna, in Con- 

 iiemara in 1890. An area of about 1,000 acres was 



