IRISH GARDENING 



IK 



acquired by the Irisli Govenuucnt witli a view 

 j)artly to an experiment in jjlanting and partly to 

 the resulting provision of employment for the 

 people. The property was placed under the Irish 

 liund Connnission, which silent a smn of nearly 

 Cl', ()()() in draining, fencing and planting. On the 

 lorniation of the Congested Districts Board in 1891, 

 Knot'khoy was transferred to that body, which at 

 once entered zealously on forestry operations, 

 l^lanting on a large scale was carried out in 1893 

 and 1894. In 1895 the report stated that the trees 

 were not thriving, and in the following year it was 

 deemed " not desirable " to i:)lant any more 

 '■ i)ending further experience." By 1898 it had 

 been decided not to incur any further avoidable 

 expense, and no mention is nuide of the Knockboy 

 experiment, which had failed, in the subsequent 

 reports of the Board, except in a note in the A])j)en- 

 dix. After that, the forestry efforts of the Board 

 were confined to supplying small quantities of trees 

 gratis to small holders for purposes of making 

 shelter belts. 



The Land Purchase Acts, passed between 1870 

 and 1885, were already exhibiting disastrous ten- 

 dencies as regards the growth of woods and forests 

 in Ireland. (20) Woods sold with farms were being 

 almost invariably destroyed by the new proprietors, 

 but it is only just to add that even if the destruc- 

 tion of trees by the new owners be ascribed to im- 

 provident carelessness, that carelessness can 

 hardly be greater than was shown in the eighteenth 

 century by the old proprietors. In 1902, however, 

 it was found that while the general tendency was to 

 ])reserve trees for shelter purposes, there were some 

 serious examples to the contrary, so that the 

 opinion was widely expressed that some steps 

 shoiUd be taken to protect existing timber from 

 devastation. Section 32 {!>} of Mr. Birrell's Land 

 Act of 1909 accordingly i^rovides that the proprietor 

 of a holding purchased under that Act shall not, 

 without the consent of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture (then three years established), cut down or 

 ui)root any tree (other than a fruit tree or osier) 

 which is necessary for ornament or shelter; and for 

 each offence mider this section shall be liable on 

 suunnary conviction to a fine not exceeding £5. 



When once the natural forest of a country has 

 disappeared, its reconstruction and reorganisation 

 entails great cost and labour. Land must be either 

 bought or leased, and plantations formed on uncon- 

 genial situations where a coarse vegetation, insect 

 and animal pests, and adverse weather conditions, 

 often cause high mortality among the plants before 

 the young woods are established. Private land 

 owners are not often in a financial position to 

 undertake large schemes of afforestation in the 

 national interest, nor are they willing to lock up 

 funds for the benefit of future generations. For 

 this reason, many European countries have been 

 compelled to augment their existing forest areas by 

 the purchase and planting up of land used mainly 

 for grazing and other purposes of an mrimportant 

 nature. In 1899 the Act creating the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for 

 Ireland came into operation, and was momentous 

 so far as Irish Forestry was concerned. It gave the 

 Department wide powers for the encouragement of 

 forestry by purchasing and planting land, advisory 

 work for the benefit of land owners, forestry edu- 

 cation, and the general furthering of Irish 

 Forestry. It also empowered the Department to 

 assist County Councils in borrowing money for 

 planting or by the striking of rates for the same 

 I»ur])ose. 



Difficulties of an unsuspected nature were met 

 with in attemi>ting to fornuilate a working scheme 



owing to the intricacies of land tenure and the 

 number and kind of rights attaching to land otlier- 

 Avise suitable for afforestation. Funds also were 

 lacking, as the resources of the Department were 

 practically all ear-marked for schemes of agricul- 

 tural and industrial development, and it was not 

 until 1910 that money was forthcomng from the 

 newly-established Development Fund Grant to en- 

 able land to be purchased, when in response to an 

 application by the Department, the Development 

 Connnissioners reconnnended an advance of 

 £25,000 for the purchase of 10,700 acres of mountain 

 land. 



The conservation and development of existing 

 woods was commenced in 1908 when, following the 

 Report of the Departmental Conunittee on Irish 

 Forestry, the Treasury granted an annual sum of 

 £6,000 to the Department for forest conservation in 

 Ireland. Up till the outbreak of war ten areas of 

 woods, haying a total area of 7,000 ac-res, were pur- 

 chased. These areas were situated in nine counties, 

 varying in size from 240 acres to 1,9(J0 acres. The 

 Department erected sawmills at three centres 

 which proved, not only financially success- 

 ful, but a great boon to local residents, especially 

 those who had small wood lots and could cart their 

 ov/n logs to the mills and have them sawn, thus 

 saving the cost of imported material and high rail- 

 way freights. Up till 1915, forestry education under 

 the Department was carried on at Avondale 

 Forestry School, Co. Wicklow, formerly the home 

 of the late Charles Stewart Parnell, which was pur- 

 chased in 19(J3. Since 1915 the students in training 

 have been transferred to Dundrum Forestry 

 Centre, Co. Tipperary. 



The power given to Comity Councils under the 

 Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act to 

 strike a forestry rate up to Id. in the £ has already 

 been noted. Another important feature of the 

 forestry work allotted to County Councils was the 

 purchase, under approved schemes, of forest trees 

 and their distribution at cost price to farmers, 

 cottagers and others in the respective counties, for 

 planting on a small scale. Well over 1,0(J(),000 trees 

 have been planted, through this scheme, to provide 

 shelter and ornament on agricultural holdings. 

 Under the Land Act of 1903 County Councils were 

 enabled to acquire land for afforestation by pur- 

 chase from the Estates Commissioners, and in 1912 

 the Development Connnissioners announced their 

 readiness to receive applications from County 

 Councils made through the Department of Agricul- 

 ture and Trechnical Instuction for maintaining 

 woods thus acquired, not less than 50 acres in ex- 

 tent. Since 1908 C'Ounties Kildare, Westmeatii, 

 ;ind liimerick, Louth an'd Cavan have acquired 

 small woods or areas of land under Land Acts of 

 1903 and 1909. The first three of these counties 

 have struck forestry rates. 



Though the two decades before the war were 

 not a period of great action in respect of 

 forest policy, they marked the origin and 

 gradual spread of the meaning of forestry. The 

 first ten years of the present century were 

 critical for Irish forestry on account of the passing 

 of the Jiand Purchase Acts of 1903 and 1909, and 

 through the havoc wrought by the Great Storm of 

 19(J3. Scotch and English timber merchants saw an 

 opi)ortunity for purchasing large areas of wood- 

 land at a low figure and established saw mills 

 throughout the country. The Irish merchants also 

 had a hand in the pie. Railway rates were very 

 high, and landowners had neither the inclination 

 nor the money to re-afforest the cleared woodland 

 areas, and were overburdened with taxation im- 

 posed on their plantations. 



