AFFORESTATION. 165 



who would consider the price of land, the compensations due to 

 tenants for severance, sheep valuations and disturbance, the 

 suitability of the soil, the prospective yield, the probable number 

 of men to be permanently employed, and the injury done to 

 existing industries. If the scheme were considered practicable 

 the Board would proceed to call for tenders for planting, 

 specifying the age, the species of plants, the method of plant- 

 ing, and the number required per acre. Provisional contracts 

 would also be made for fencing, draining, killing beetles, 

 switching bracken, removal of timber, etc. Arrangements for 

 "bushing up," rabbit killing, vermin destruction, fire breaks, 

 etc., would be made and penalties agreed upon. 



After the Board had satisfied itself not only that compensation 

 claims and initial outlay generally would leave a fair margin ot 

 profit, but also that the forest work could be carried on at 

 a reasonable cost, it would sanction the scheme, and the work 

 would be begun. 



Thfe principal argument raised against State aid to the 

 private owner is that it implies a certain measure of dual owner- 

 ship and control. This alone in the eyes of the more " phrase- 

 ridden " is enough to condemn it as something necessarily 

 vicious, vaguely — but by some subconscious mental process 

 difficult to arrive at — inseparably connected with agrarian 

 crime and misrule in Ireland. 



It is worth while inquiring if this is a very enlightened view. 



Dual control may be, and often is, a hard necessity, never- 

 theless it is a permanent factor in our everyday life, and to 

 ignore it is not to face facts as they are. Every business, every 

 farm, every estate that is run on borrowed money, every contract, 

 every delegation of command by a central authority, implies a 

 measure of dual control, and in some cases of dual ownership also. 

 Yet it must be allowed that the path of progress is towards 

 decentralisation and extension of local responsibility, and that 

 in finance the tendency is towards the increase of turnover by 

 expansion built up to the limit of borrowing powers. Is this 

 consistent with the inherent evil suggested ? 



A little straight thinking will show that the evil of dual 

 control is not "of itself" but in its application. Dual control 

 with dual ownership is possible where there is unity of purpose, 

 it is smoothly successful where there is in addition, similarity of 

 method, but it is unworkable where there is a divergency of 



