294 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICUI/TllRAL SOCIETY. 



XXIV. The Annual Excursion in 1900 to Clandeboye, 

 Baronscourt, and Castlewellan, in Ulster. 



The Twenty-third Annual Excursion of the Society took place 

 on the 8th, 9th, and 10th August 1900, when a visit was paid to 

 three of the most interesting residential estates in the northern 

 province of Ireland — Clandeboye, Baronscourt, and Castlewellan. 



This is the second time the Society has gone to Ireland, the 

 last occasion being in 1897, when Counties Dublin, Wicklow, 

 and Kildare in the east, and Cork and Kerry in the south, were 

 visited. The "Plantation of Ulster," by King James I. in 1610, 

 had no reference to the "sticking in" of trees, but was the settle- 

 ment of escheated lands, comprising practically the whole of the 

 northern portion of the country, by Scotch and English colonists, 

 for agricultural and industrial development. Had more attention 

 been paid to forestry when Ulster was being planted in the early 

 years of the seventeenth century, there might to-day have been a 

 great area of valuable woodlands in the province, but nothing was 

 done to foster the culture of woods. Among the inducements 

 held out by the Privy Council when the land was being offered 

 for settlement, was that it was " well-wooded, and its forests were 

 accessible by water." Whatever may have been its condition at 

 that time, Ulster was soon pretty well denuded of timber, and 

 there was decided discouragement to fresh planting on the part 

 of those holding under the London Companies, in face of a 

 reservation to the Iri*h Society of all timber grown on the lands, 

 with full power to cut it down and carry it away when they saw 

 fit. As a consequence, Ireland, in proportion to its area, is the 

 most sparsely wooded country in Europe, and that the afforesta- 

 tion of waste lands has not been entirely neglected— although 

 there is a vast field still unoccupied — has been due to the enter- 

 prise and foresight of a few individual proprietors during the 

 nineteenth century. 



First Day -Belfast and Clandeboye. 



The Excursion left Edinburgh on the evening of the 7th. 

 The Earl of Mansfield, President of the Society, was unable to be 

 present, being detained on duty with his regiment in London, but 

 there was a muster of nearly one hundred, the company including 

 11. C. Manro Ferguson, M.P., Honorary Secretary; Alex. Angus, 



