792 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



STATISTICS AND HISTORY 



Mr. H. R. MacMillan brings an interesting, 

 Forestry somewhat critical account of forestry conditions 



, in in Ireland, which as Trade Commissioner he has 



Ireland personally inspected. Ireland, with only about 



300,000 acres of woodland, mostly in small bodies 

 of less than 1,000 acres, has in the Department of Agriculture and 

 Technical Education a Chief Inspector of Forestry, A. C. Forbes, 

 whose business it is to give private owners advice and foster the for- 

 estry interests generally. This institution exists since 1899. The de- 

 partment started by acquiring a demonstration area of 500 acres upon 

 which silvicultural methods could be demonstrated, and by establishing 

 a school for the training of foresters, six annually for a three-year 

 course. Over 100 acres of sample plots were planted, at the enormous 

 cost of $34.20 per acre, with 3,000 two-year-olds per acre. 



Many exotics, especially Americans, were given a trial, and it ap- 

 pears that the Pacific Coast species are specially adapted to the climate 

 better than Europeans. 



In 1908 an annual grant of $28,000 was made to the department for 

 the requisition of woodlands, and by 1914 ten areas, varying in size 

 from 240 to 1,900 acres, had been secured — 7,000 acres in all. There 

 are also over 2 million acres of wild mountain land, some of which 

 would be fit for planting, but grazing interests complicate the intro- 

 duction of such planting policy. The department, however, secured 

 $120,000 from the Development Fund for purchases of such lands, 

 which was done at the exorbitant price of from $9.60 to $14.40 per 

 acre ; altogether 7,000 acres in three blocks were acquired and planting 

 on these has begun. 



Under the land acts of 1903 and 1909 the government advances 

 money to tenants to enable them to purchase the lands under their oc- 

 cupancy in order to break up large land holdings. Where woodlands 

 were concerned, their destruction was the usual consequence of such 

 purchases until the forest department was given power to require con- 

 servation management. There was also provision made for county 

 councils to raise taxes for the acquisition of municipal forests and for 

 free distribution of planting stock. Three counties have taken advan- 

 tage of the first provision and over one million trees have been dis- 

 tributed. 



An annual vote of $48,000 supports the department, consisting now 

 of one chief and two assistant inspectors and a ranger in charge of 

 nurseries. 



