FOREST OPERATIONS IN COUNTY GALWAY, IRELAND. 259 



spring up. If, on the other hand, large quantities are offered for 

 sale regularly every year, a steady trade in timber will spring up, 

 and, above all, local industries will develop. The returns showing 

 the imports of timber into Great Britain and Ireland give their 

 value as about £18,000,000 annually. And, again, the value of 

 wood-pulp imported annually reaches a large figure (T believe 

 considerably over a million pounds in value). Now, amongst the 

 imports of timber are several thousand tons of birch from America, 

 which is used for bobbins and such like articles. Why could they 

 not be produced in a district like Galway 1 Or, take spruce and 

 Scotch pine, of which the wood-pulp is made, which comes from 

 abroad. There is no reason why wood-pulp factories should not 

 spring up in Galway, especially where water-power is available, 

 if there was an annual outturn of, say, at least 20,000 tons of 

 spruce and Scotch pine timber. Again, the demand for mining 

 props in England and Wales is steadily increasing, and prices are 

 not likely to remain always as low as they happen to be at present. 

 Nor are the imports of large timber likely to continue as freely 

 and at such low rates as at present. Within a very limited space 

 of time, the United States of America will want every stick which 

 Canada can spare, thus reducing the imports into Britain by about 

 one and a half millions of tons, while it is more than doubtful 

 whether the countries around the Baltic will be able to continue 

 to send us as much timber as of late. 



On the whole, then, I am more satisfied than ever that afforesta- 

 tion, if done economically and judiciously, will pay in Ireland, 

 especially in districts like County Galway, where water-carriage 

 is close at hand. 



Afforestation may be undertaken by the State or by private 

 persons. Whether under existing circumstances much will be 

 done by the latter is doubtful, because times are bad, and many 

 private owners are short of cash. It is a question worth con- 

 sidering whether the State could not help by making suitable 

 advances. 



In the case of agricultural holdings, the State, I understand, 

 advances money, which is repaid, capital and interest, in a number 

 of years by annual payments of 5 per cent, on the amount 

 advanced. The agriculturist can do this as he reaps his first 

 crop at the end of a year. In the case of forests, on the other 

 hand, the returns do not commence until after the lapse of a 

 series of years, and few proprietors could afford to pay at once 



