140 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTT'ISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY 



consequent improvement of our present woodlands becomes 

 manifest, it will then be opportune to raise the subject either ot 

 loans or of State forests." The drawbacks to private planting 

 were dealt with as "Minor Considerations"; and while the 

 Committee were not prepared to make any recommendation 

 regarding the incidence of local rates on plantations and the 

 assessed valuation of woodlands, they thought that the claims 

 for "• extraordinary traffic " made by local authorities against 

 timber merchants (and therefore ultimately paid by the timber- 

 grower) were unjust and "unreasonable"; that the estate duties 

 needed "immediate revision" as being "peculiarly unfair to 

 the poorer districts," because " the pressure of such a death 

 duty on timber must both act as a bar to afforestation in 

 districts most needing it, and compel the realisation of 

 immature timber, thus preventing the practice of sound 

 forestry " ; that security was needed against fires from railway 

 sparks (since very inadequately provided up to a maximum 

 compensation of ^loo under the Railway Fires Act, 1905); 

 and that "in the public interest the owner of plantations, who 

 himself keeps down ground-game, should have the right to 

 recover compensation for damage caused by hares and rabbits 

 from adjoining property," so ruinous are these to systematic 

 forestry and natural regeneration. 



Very little action was taken upon this Report. Many of the 

 most important recommendations have been tacitly ignored, 

 and especially that recommending the detailed inspection and 

 scheduling of land suitable for profitable planting, which must 

 of course be a step taken before any practical scheme of very 

 extensive planting can be properly considered. By not 

 carrying out the recommendations of the Committees of 1887 

 and 1902 much valuable time has been lost. 



The third inquiry was that which took place when, in 

 October 1907, a Committee was appointed by the Department 

 of Agriculture in Ireland to advise regarding an extensive 

 scheme of forestry operations. Previous to this, however, 

 while the Land Purchase Act of 1904 was under consideration, 

 certain preliminary inquiries had been made as to the extent 

 of waste and poor land which might probably be plantable 

 with a reasonable prospect of direct profit, and the late Mr 

 Parnell's estate (Avondale, Co. Wicklow) had been acquired 

 in 1903 and equipped as a school for the training of practical 



