NOTES AND QUERIES. I07 



sity of Oxford ; Professor John Rich Campbell, assistant 

 secretary in respect of agriculture of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. The terms of 

 reference are to inquire into and report upon the following 

 matters relating to the improvement of forestry in Ireland — viz., 

 (i) the present provision for State aid to forestry in Ireland; 

 (2) the means whereby, in connection with the operation of the 

 Land Purchase Acts, existing woods may be preserved, and land 

 suitable for forestry acquired for public purposes ; and (3) the 

 financial and other provisions necessary for a comprehensive 

 scheme of afforestation in Ireland. The committee began its 

 sittings in October. 



Rural Employment in Ireland and Re- Afforestation. 



A writer in the Timber Trades Journal calls attention to some 

 points in regard to the condition of the forests of Ireland which 

 are of great importance. The existing forests of that country 

 are, owing to a variety of causes, being destroyed at an alarming 

 rate, and there is little hope that this state of affairs will be 

 remedied by private effort. In the first place, the woods in 

 many parts are being ruthlessly destroyed by the prevalence of 

 temporary businesses in the shape of portable saw-mills, which, 

 as a rule, belong to English firms, and which are not undertaken 

 with the idea of establishing a permanent industry which may 

 benefit the locality. Again, the tenant farmers who become 

 owners under the Land Commission in many cases sell out the 

 timber immediately on taking possession of the land, and this 

 without having any intention of replanting. An increasingly 

 widespread interest is, however, now manifest in the country, 

 and this is mainly due to the disinterested and strenuous action 

 of the Irish Forestry Society. They have succeeded in rousing 

 the interest of the Agricultural Department to the possibilities of 

 re-afforestation, but as yet no adequate steps have been officially 

 taken towards the realisation of these ideas. It is rightly felt 

 that in Ireland, owing to the state of the Land Question, the 

 matter rests almost entirely in the hands of those particular 

 bodies responsible for the buying out of the lands from the 

 present owners, that is, such bodies as the Estates Commissioners 

 and the Congested Districts Board. No amount of private 



