462 Forestry Quarterly 



would seriously disturb the agricultural population. Such dis- 

 turbance could only be accomplished by a gradual change in the 

 habits of the population, and by demonstrating that the profit 

 from forest planting is greater than the profit from grazing, and that 

 the plantations are on the whole, by affording employment for 

 labor, more of a source of support to the community than the 

 animals they displace. 



A large proportion of the mountain land cannot be expected to 

 profitably produce timber. Due chiefly to the prevailing South- 

 west wind, which dries the trees out and checks growth, the upper 

 limit of commercial forest in Ireland is about 1200 feet absolute 

 elevation; the limit of the growth is in the neighborhood of 1500 

 feet. Towards the West coast, where the influence of the wind is 

 more strongly felt, the limit of commercial forest is about 900 feet. 

 As the upper limit of tillable land over the greater part of the 

 island is aroimd 700 feet there is not a great area, even not allowing 

 for the grazing, available for commercial forest. 



The woodlands which go to make up the 300,000 existing acres 

 of tree growth are chiefly in bodies of 1 ,000 acres or less. Previous 

 to 1899, none belonged to the state. Small areas were degenerated 

 forest, the remnants of early royal forests and perhaps of the forest 

 primeval of the island. The greater part were plantations made 

 within the past century. Unfortunately, the productivity of these 

 forests is not what it should be because of the lack of silvicultural 

 knowledge amongst farmers and landowners, this lack leading to 

 poorly planned, poorly thinned and poorly tended plantations. 

 The slow progress of forestry under private initiative in the past was 

 undoubtedly due to the lack of silvicultural knowledge. Owners 

 who made plantations received such poor financial results that 

 neither they nor their neighbors were tempted to proceed farther 

 with forest plantations. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Education, there- 

 fore, had a varied problem to face when it undertook the improve- 

 ment of the forest situation. 



The first necessity was the building up of a competent technical 

 staff. Soon after the passage of the Act, a Scotch forester, Mr. A. 

 C. Forbes, entered the service of the Department as Chief Inspector 

 of Forestry. The Department at that time was unable to devote 

 money to forest work. The duties of the Chief Inspector were for 

 a time confined to giving advice to private owners and making a 

 forest survey of several Irish counties. 



