2l6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Steadily worked during the past twelve years is therefore now 

 in sight. 



In reply to a question asked in the House of Commons, 

 on 19th April, as to schemes sanctioned up to date by the 

 Commissioners, Mr Hobhouse said that an advance of ^^25,000, 

 recommended by them for purposes of forestry in Ireland, was to 

 be spent on purchasing several areas of vacant land, in various 

 parts of the country, on each of which a scheme of afforestation 

 is to be carried out. 



In addition to the above, a Treasury grant has been obtained 

 for the purpose of saving some of the larger woodland remnants 

 on purchased estates in Ireland. On this subject Mr Birrell 

 replied as follows to a question asked in the House of 

 Commons : — 



"A sum of ;^6ooo has been voted by Parliament in each of the 

 years 1909-10 and 1910-11 for forestry work to be undertaken 

 by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for 

 Ireland ; and planting and other operations are in active progress 

 at five centres where lands have been acquired by the 

 Department under the terms of the Irish Land Acts. 



" The total area being dealt with amounts to nearly 4000 acres, 

 and is distributed as follows: — County Galway, 1277 acres; 

 County Tipperary, 1197 acres; County Wexford, 646 acres; 

 County Cavan, 405 acres; County Londonderry, 254 acres. In 

 addition to these areas there are 800 acres of forest lands in 

 County Wicklow and County Wexford utilised in connection 

 with the Department's forestry school at Avondale, County 

 Wicklow. Forestry is one of the purposes to which County 

 Councils may apply the proceeds of rates, not exceeding in all 

 2d. in the pound, which they can levy under the Agriculture and 

 Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899, and the Technical 

 Instruction Acts, 1889 and 1891. In addition, the Irish Land 

 Act, 1909, prescribes that the instalments of the purchase 

 annuity in respect of any parcel of land purchased by a County 

 Council or by a Rural District Council shall be raised as a county 

 charge or as a district charge, as the case may be. The 

 Department is co-operating with County Councils with regard 

 to forest areas suitable for being dealt with by these bodies. 

 Forestry schemes approved by the Department are in operation 

 in two counties, and the adoption of schemes in other counties is 

 under consideration." 



