IRISH GARDENING. 



owners of woods so commonly ignore it 

 altogether. Not only is it at the mercy of four- 

 footed marauders, but two-footed bandits raid 

 it with impunity, cutting bundles of " skollops " 

 or " a few kippens " to make hurdles or handles, 

 and choosing all the straightest and best, and 

 leaving only the rubbish. 



Now, we ought all of us to be very proud of 

 our home-grown ash. It is the only timber we 

 produce which has held its lead in the face of 

 the keenest foreign competition ; not only as 

 the best ash in the world, but as the best timber 

 in the world for numberless useful and indis- 

 pensable purposes, and it has done this purely 

 on its merits. 



The very best quality trees we can produce 

 are those grown from natural seedlings such as 



I have described. 

 These trees will sell 

 for 2s. per cubic 

 foot standing, or 

 close on £2 per ton 

 for butt lengths, so 

 it is worth while 

 taking a great deal 

 of trouble and mak- 

 ing some outlay to 

 produce them, 

 but, as a matter 

 of fact, very little 

 trouble is required, 

 and practically no 

 outlay, when the 

 conditions are 

 favourable, as they 

 are in hundreds of 

 cases of which I 

 know. Of course to grow good ash the land 

 must be suitable — that is, a fairly deep soil, 

 with plenty of fresh moisture, but stagnant 

 water is an abomination. More ash trees 

 catch cold through getting " wet feet " than 

 children. The best test of the land is to ex- 

 amine the ash already on it, and see if they 

 are making what the Americans call a "thrifty" 

 growth. Ash to be of good quality must be 

 grown fast and be absolutely clean and straight- 

 grained — a tree that will split from butt to top, 

 if not felled with the greatest care, is the one 

 for which the timber merchant will give most 

 money. 



Let the young trees struggle up in a jungle 

 till quite fifteen feet high. As long as they 

 have light over their head the crowding will 

 only benefit them at this stage. Then a little 

 easing out for the better trees by slashing over 

 two or three round them, a little pruning back 

 of too strong branches while yet they are small. 

 This repeated a few years later, and the promise 

 of a very valuable crop of trees is the result. 

 There is more in its subsequent treatment than 



A. E. Moeran. 



space will allow me to deal with, but nothing 

 that the ordinary man, without forestry training, 

 cannot master and put in practice with the 

 greatest ease. 



I wonder have many people realised how the 

 homely, unassuming ash is linked to much that 

 is best and brightest and bravest both in our 

 present every day life and in our history as a 

 people ! We take our first views of life seated 

 in a mail cart or perambulator with ash shafts. 

 The vast road traffic of the British Isles is 

 carried by wheels made partly of ash in vehicles, 

 in the building of which ash is largely used. 

 Shafts and carriage poles, agricultural imple- 

 ments, the oars that slowly drag the heavy 

 lifeboat out into the teeth of the gale — even the 

 ribs of the Quilty fishermen's curragh — all are 

 ash. Tool handles of every description, the 

 pick, the shovel, the fork, the spade ; where 

 the best handle is wanted it is English or Irish 

 ash. Think of the manual labour of a whole 

 nation, of the strong hands that have won for 

 England her foremost place, worn hard from 

 gripping honest ash handles — the handles over 

 which the miner, the mechanic, the navvy, and 

 the labourer have poured the sweat of a 

 strenuous lifetime, and you will agree with me 

 that the ash ought to be something more to 

 us than just a rather uninteresting wayside tree. 

 In games, too, it holds its own. Tennis rac- 

 quets, hockey sticks, cricket stumps, are all of 

 the best ash, and the hurleys of our national 

 game are keenly sought for among ash, having 

 a natural bend at the root. 



Our working partnership with ash does not 

 date from yesterday either. The pike and 

 halbert-men of the middle ages mounted their 

 weapons on ash shafts, and at Crecy and 

 Poitiers it was from the deadly flight of ash 

 arrows that the French army flinched before 

 the chivalry of England, with their great ash 

 lances laid in rest stormed down on them and 

 over them. 



We can imagine among Arthur's knights 

 how closely the quality of the timber was 

 examined when both life and honour depended 

 on its strength — when — 



" All at fiery speed the two 

 Shocked on the central bridgfe and either spear 

 Bent but not break, and either knig-ht at once 

 Hurled as a stone from out a catapult 

 Beyond his horse's crupper, and the bridg'e 

 Fell as if dead." 



Yes, we are sweeping away hedgerows and 

 plantations and woods, and in whole districts 

 there is hardly an ash tree left ; but does not it 

 seem, in a way, as if we owed something better 

 than this to the ash after its ten centuries of 

 service. 



"If human life be cast among trees at all, the love 

 borne to them is a sure test oi its purity." — Ruskiii, 



