8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH AREORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



departure from the Commissioners' general policy, were set out 

 as follows by the Committee : — • 



(a) That Ireland only has i'5 per cent, of its total area 



under wood. 

 (/;) That a system of peasant proprietorship has been 

 adopted in Ireland under which the land is being 

 divided into properties much too small ever to 

 admit of successful silviculture by the individual 

 owners. 

 (c) That there are now special opportunities to acquire 

 available areas for afforestation purposes which are 

 not likely to occur again. 

 At the same time the Committee recommended, and the 

 Commissioners agreed, that the following general principles 

 should be made applicable to schemes of State afforestation 

 in Ireland : — • 



(a) That as economic silvicultural management depends 

 upon the size of the afforestable area, no scheme 

 for State afforestation in a particular district should 

 be brought forward unless the area available in the 

 present or future should be sufficiently large in 

 itself, or would make up a group of areas sufficiently 

 convenient to each other, to afford a reasonable 

 prospect of being worked from one centre on 

 commercial principles. 

 {l>) That in the acquisition of any area for State afforesta- 

 tion, not more than the present value should be paid 

 for the land, having regard, as far as practicable, 

 to its market price at the time. 



(c) That the land be free of tenant right, or other conditions 



that might prevent its being planted. 



(d) That following on the purchase of any area, a scheme 



of management, i.e. a working-plan, should be pre- 

 pared, prescribing for its treatment over the whole 

 period necessary for the development of the area, 

 such a scheme not only to have regard to the area 

 actually acquired at the moment, but to the extent 

 of land which might become available in future in 

 the same locality; the scheme of management so 

 drawn up to be submitted to the consideration of 

 the Development Commissioners at the time the 



