PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



our most valuable timber-producing trees, for which both 

 demand and price is everything that could be desired, 

 thriving on peat bog of which over a million acres are 

 lying waste in Ireland. As pointed out in my report to 

 the Board of Agriculture, what an industry g would be 

 opened up, in Ireland especially, by the afforesting of 

 waste lands I And what a boon to the poor and unemployed ! 

 First there would be the fencing, clearing and planting 

 the land, the tending of which would give employment, 

 though in a limited sense, until the plantations had 

 attained the age of twelve to twenty years, after which 

 the erection of saw-mills and converting the timber 

 would give remunerative work to hundeds of the 

 unemployed. 



In many of the outlying parts of Scotland and Ireland, 

 which are far removed from road and rail, it is difficult 

 to get rid of the small amount of timber periodically 

 thinned out from the woodlands, but were a continuity of 

 supply forthcoming I feel certain that merchants would 

 be prompted to make special transit arrangements. On 

 several occasions I have been asked by Irish landowners 

 to recommend buyers of good larch and oak timber, but 

 after negotiating I have invariably been told by the 

 timber merchant that the quantity offered was too small 

 to allow of special facilities for delivery being entered 

 into. They stated, however, that if a specified number 

 of cubic feet could be guaranteed annually for a few 

 years that they were quite prepared to buy specially good 

 oak and larch, which were always in demand in England. 

 These, then, are cases in which a continuity of supply, as 

 would be possible if my scheme of afforesting was carried 

 out, would insure speedy sales, at moderate prices, in places 

 where at present it is difficult to dispose of the small 

 quantities unless under unreasonable conditions. 



