30 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with reckless extravagance, with the result that the greater 

 part of the country, for which at least shelter might have been 

 preserved, is in its present bare and wind-swept condition. Had 

 provident and intelligent Government action been applied to 

 the subject in Ireland, undoubtedly the forest area and the 

 general agricultural wealth of the country would be in a far 

 better position than they now are. It is, moreover, an 

 important factor in the case that the proceeds of the Quit 

 and Crown Rents, which are entirely derivable from these 

 lands, and which have yielded a return of upwards of ^60,000 

 a year, have never, since the union of the Irish and the British 

 exchequers, been directly spent in Ireland or applied to Irish 

 purposes, but have been, with the general Crown revenues, 

 invested in Great Britain, sometimes even in promoting 

 forestry. 1 There is, finally, the fact that the State, in abolishing 

 the landlord through the Purchase Acts, is bound to provide, 

 and has not yet provided, a machinery to discharge his functions 

 in respect of several matters, including woods, which cannot 

 be left to individual tenant purchasers, and in which the 

 general community, as well as the tenant purchasers, has now 

 a specific interest. Having regard to what is at present 

 occurring in the country, we cannot hesitate to say that, not 

 only does the responsibility lie on the State for taking action, 

 but that if action be not taken at once it will mean a gross 

 neglect comparable with the improvidence of the past, and 

 far less excusable." 



They then proceed to point out that the State agency already 

 exists in the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion, which was endowed with power, under the Act of 1899, 

 to develop forestry. But they consider that the Forestry 

 Section of the Department should be specially assisted by an 

 Advisory Committee; and here it is allowable to disagree, 

 and to suggest that such work is not suitably managed by 

 committees of persons who very likely may differ considerably 

 in opinions, and at any rate are liable to change, and so 

 to fail in maintaining those permanent and definite aims which 

 are necessary in the management of estates which depend 

 for successful results on continuity of action. It might be 

 thought that a better plan would have been to appoint one 



' Four sums, amounting to a total of j£^77,6oi (including ;^i 5,636 invested in 

 Bank of Ireland Stock), form the only exception to this rule. {^Report, App. II. ) 



