6z T I M B E R P L A N T I N G. 



SECTION X. 



Timber Planting . 



THROUGH every part of Ireland, in which I have been, 

 one hundred contiguous acres are not to be found with- 

 out evident figns, they were once wood, or at leaft very well 

 wooded. Trees, and the roots of trees of the largeft fize, are 

 dug up in all the bogs j and in the cultivated countries, the 

 flumps of trees deftroyed ihew that the deftruftiori has not been 

 of any antient date. A vaft number of the Irifh names for 

 hills, mountains, vallies and plains, have forefts, woods, 

 groves, or trees for the fignification ; Lord Kingfborough has 

 an hundred thoufand acres about Mitchelftown, in which you 

 muft take a breathing gallop to find a ftick large enough to 

 beat a dog, yet is there not an enclofure without" the remnants 

 of trees, many of them large ; nor is it a peculiarity to that 

 cftate : in a word the greateft part of the kingdom exhibits a 

 naked, bleak, dreary view for want of wood, which has been 

 deftroyed for a century paft, with the moft thoughllefs prodi- 

 gality, and ftill continues to be cut and wafted, as if it was 

 not worth the prefervation. The Baltic fir fupplies all the ufes 

 cf the kingdom, even thofe for which nothing is proper but 

 oak ; and the diftance of all the ports of Ireland from that fea, 

 makes the fupply much dearer than it is in England. 



In converfation with gentlemen, I found they very general- 

 ly laid the deftruftion of timber to the common people ; who, 

 they fay, have an averfion to a tree ; at the earlieft age 

 they fteal it for a walking-ftick ; afterwards for a fpade handle ; 

 Jater for a car fhaft ; and later ftill for a cabbin rafter ; that 

 the poor do fteal it is certain, but I am clear the gentlemen of 

 the country may thank themfelves. Is it the confumption of 

 fticks and handles that has deftroyed millions of acres ? Abfur- 

 dity ! The profligate, prodigal, worthlefs landowner cuts 

 down his acres, and leaves them unfenced agiinft cattle, and 

 then he has the impudence to charge the fcarcity of trees to 

 the walking-flicks of the poor, goes into the houfe of com- 

 mons and votes for an aft, which lays a penalty of forty fliiil- 

 ings on any poor man having a twig in his pcfleffion, which 

 he cannot account for. This aft, and twenty more in the 

 fame fpirit, (lands at pre&nt a monument of their felf-con- 

 demnation and opprefllon. They have made wood fo fcarce, 

 that the wretched cottars cannot procure enough for their ne- 

 ceffary confumption, and then they pafs penal laws on their 

 dealing, or even poflefling, what it is impcffible for them to 

 buy. If by another aft you would hang up all the landlords 

 vrho cut woods without fencing, and deftroy trees without 

 planting, you would lay your axe to the root of the evil, and 

 rid the kingdom of fome of the greateft pefts in it j but in the 

 name of humanity and common fenfe, let the poor alone, for 

 whofe ftealing in this, as in moft other cafes, nobody ought to 



be 



