The total net Vote for the current financial year is £230,510, representing an increase over last year of £108,641. In presenting my Estimate last year I mentioned that the increase then provided was the first step towards a wide expansion of our forestry operations and I am glad to state that the Department acquired during 1934-35 nearly double the amount of land that was acquired during the previous year: the area being 18,967 acres as compared with 10,707 acres in 1933-34. I should explain that while a substantial increase in the amount of land acquired for forestry can be made within a year an immediate increase of the planting programme is an entirely different matter.
The nurseries must be extended to produce a sufficient number of plants to meet the requirements of the proposed programme and approximately three years' nursery production is necessary before the plants are ready for the forests. This accounts for the fact that although our activities have been almost doubled the actual results in forest planting will not be seen for some time. As it worked out last year, the actual acreage planted was 5,438 acres, being an increase of 1,283 acres over the previous year, whilst the provisional programme planned for the current year is about 8,000 acres. Our nurseries during the past year have been doubled in area and further extension must take place to meet the continuous expansion that is contemplated.
The total area for forestry now in the hands of the State is 84,140 acres, which is made up of the 18,967 acres acquired during last year and the 65,173 already in the hands of the Department.
During the year our inspectors visited many areas wherein offers of lands were received by the Department and where it was found impracticable to have planting done. It has always been my wish to have forestry operations carried out in the poorer districts so that the maximum amount of employment could be afforded in these areas. Whilst this has been possible in a few districts the results have not so far been so good as we would all have wished.
Many thousands of acres have been inspected in Kerry, Galway and Mayo without anything substantial being secured for our purposes. It was found on inspection that the exposure to the Atlantic breezes prohibited any hope of successful planting. This applied to such districts as Caherdaniel, Caherciveen and other districts in Kerry, to areas in Belmullet, Ballycastle and Achill Island and to many districts of the Gaeltacht in Galway and Donegal. Further inspection is being made in the Gaeltacht counties and every effort is being made to get suitable lands, but it will, I think, be agreed that in acquiring land for planting we must be reasonably certain that we will not have any failures.
An area of 1,330 acres has been acquired in the Ballyvourney district of the Cork Gaeltacht. A new centre is being established and planting operations will be commenced there next season. Negotiations are at present taking place for the purchase of over 1,000 acres in the area around Gougane Barra, and if these are successful it will mean the establishment of a new centre there. A new area has been secured in Kenmare which will probably provide a new centre there and negotiations for lands are proceeding in Castleisland, Cliffoney and Ballinrobe, and in several areas in Donegal. An area of about 1,300 acres is being acquired in Waterford, a few miles from the Ring College.
I mention these particular areas to indicate our anxiety and desire to get forestry development in the west and in the poorer Gaeltacht districts, but it will always be borne in mind that the land must be suitable and that the "exposure" must not be such as will render the growing of trees impossible.
Coming to the different items of the Vote, I will deal with these in brief detail.
Sub-head A: Salaries, wages and allowances, £10,804 (increase, £2.634).— This represents an increase of £2,634 and provides for an increase in the inspectorate staff as well as the appointment of a new director. During the year the inspectorate staff was increased and a scheme of reorganisation was evolved and is now being put into operation. This scheme, which provides for the division of the country into a number of zones each immediately under the charge of a junior inspector, should result in greater efficiency, and is necessary to meet the expansion of the Department's operations. A Selection Board is at present investigating the qualifications of a large number of applicants for the position of Forestry Director.
Sub-head B: Travelling expenses and subsistence allowances.—There is an increase here of £632 to meet the necessary expenditure resulting from the additional staffs provided for under sub-head A and sub-head C.2.
Sub-head C.1: Acquisition of land.— The sum required under this head for the acquisition of land is £109,500, representing an increase of £59,500. The actual amount expended during the year ending 31st March last was £38,001 but purchases were completed during the same period for an additional sum of £19,718 though the purchase money in these cases was not paid over to the vendors at the closing date of the financial year. In other words, our purchases last year amounted to a total sum of £57,719. There are at present negotiations pending for an area of about 20,000 acres. It is also anticipated that a number of estates with large blocks of immature plantations will be offered to the Department during the coming year, and provision for this type of purchase is included in this sub-head.
Sub-head C.2: Cultural operations, maintenance, etc.—There is an increase under this sub-head of £42,989, which is due to the expansion of our programme. Included in this sub-head is the provision for foresters' foremen, general labour as well as the maintenance of buildings and the provision of seed and equipment. We have increased our number of centres from 51 to 62. The number of foresters has been increased from 27 to 33 and the number of foremen has been increased from seven to 17. The Department has found difficulty in obtaining adequately-trained men for these positions which we have to fill to meet our additional operations. We are recruiting trainees, but it will be readily understood that it will be from two to three years before these trainees have completed their training. This shortage of trained staffs has considerably handicapped us in our work and has in some cases prevented us from getting ahead with work on lands which we have already acquired.
There is a sum of £1,900 provided for the upkeep of buildings on the forest properties. This includes the expenditure on reconditioning and equipping Avondale as a Forestry School which, it is expected, will be opened for trainees at the beginning of June. With regard to ordinary labour, our peak period of employment last year was in March, when 1,310 labourers were engaged. In February, 1,158 were operating, and 936 were on the work in January. During the summer when clearing operations are being carried on and when more or less the season for forestry is over, the number of employees falls to about 600. The total amount spent on labour last year was £49,538. When I speak of that type of labour I mean labour on what you might call rough work, apart from the ordinary permanent staffs.
Seeds, Seedlings and Transplants— £9,000. The sum estimated for the purchase of seed, seedlings and transplants is £9,000. Apart from the production of our own nurseries, we purchased 1,750,000 plants from Saorsát nurserymen during last year and as they were unable to supply all our needs in the species selected, some purchases had to be made outside the country. The quantity of seed purchased last year was 6,876 lb. and these seeds were imported from Germany (2,550 lb.), Holland (1,500), Denmark (1,330), Austria (200), United States (656), Scotland (590), Czecho Slovakia (50). It should be made clear, of course, that the big bulk of the seedlings and transplants are produced in our own nurseries but purchases will be necessary until our nursery production is brought up to our planting needs. This, it is expected, will be possible within the next few years.
As mentioned last year, the Department installed a small seed extraction plant and this promises to be reasonably successful. During the year 1,643 lb. of seed was collected including 600 lb. weight of oak, 500 lb. beech and 225 ash, whilst 1,895,000 seedlings were raised from the home collected seed sown last year.
Sub-head C.3: Timber conversion.— This expenditure is in connection with the Department's sawmills at Dundrum and Emo. The mill at Emo is comparatively small but at Dundrum there is a reasonably good demand for the products of the mill. Certain improvements and additions for Dundrum are at present under consideration and these account, in the main, for the increase in expenditure.
Sub-head D. 1: Grants for afforestation purposes £600. This expenditure is in connection with the Department's scheme of Free Grants for private persons undertaking planting and replanting work. Grants are made at the rate of £4 per acre, £3 being paid as soon as the planting has been carried out to the satisfaction of the Department and the remaining £1 per acre in five years' time provided the plantation has been properly maintained. The minimum area required is five acres but this amount can, where necessary, be made up by different land owners provided that all the lands adjoin and that the area provided is not less than the five acres.
Sub-head D.2: Arbour Day, £1,400— The Department revived the Arbor Day movement and fixed March last as an Arbor month leaving to each area the choice of a suitable day. The scheme was carried through the medium of the schools with the co-operation of the Minister for Education. 1,524 schools, including 149 in the Gaeltacht, applied for vouchers and participated in the scheme. The main purpose of Arbor Day is the Educational one, to teach children the value of trees, to interest them in the care and preservation of existing trees and to give them an appreciation of re-afforestation work and the beauty and value of trees generally. The last Arbor Day venture was merely a first experiment and the reports so far received indicate that it was reasonably successful.
Sub-head E: Forestry education, £1,000.—This sub-head provides one scholarship value £60 tenable at the National University and covering a five years' course. It also provides for a special course for foresters and foremen. The greater portion of the amount required is in connection with the opening of Avondale as a School of Forestry. Avondale was for some years used as a school of forestry but was closed down during the European War. The trainees of the Department have been located at various centres principally at Emo and a few at Dundrum, but undoubtedly Avondale will provide ideal facilities for the practical and theoretical training which our apprentices require.
Sub-head F. is merely a token vote of £10.
Sub-head G: Incidental expenses, £200, covers the expenses of advertising lettings of shootings, lands available for grazing, sales of timber as well as telegrams, telephones and sundry expenses.
Sub-head H. Appropriations-in-Aid, £8,200.—This sum represents the estimated receipts from the sale of mature timber, receipts from the sale of products of sawmills, rents from grazings, shootings, cottages, etc. An increase of £1,300 is estimated over last year's figure.
I have covered the various sub-heads of the estimate and these will indicate what we have in mind for the current year. The policy is one of expansion, but as I have explained the various steps in expansion must be synchronised so that acquisition and preparation of land will be accompanied by nursery development and the production of plants. One of our chief difficulties has been the lack of trained scientific foresters and inspectors. Our existing staff has worked hard to cover all the proposals and offers which we have received but additional expert officers are needed in the Department.
At present a special selection board is engaged in selecting a new director. The post has been made attractive and was widely advertised, with the result that we have had close on 70 candidates from 12 different countries for the position. Until this new director is appointed and until we have more men trained as inspectors, foresters and foremen we cannot reach the full expansion which I look upon as desirable and necessary for the country. Apart from the leeway that is to be made up and apart from the climatic and æsthetic advantages of having our lands planted with trees there is an urgent economic need for timber for our own requirements. It will take years to repair the ravages of the past and the denuding of our stocks and it is to that end that the whole activity of the Department is being devoted. I have indicated the preliminary necessary steps that must precede full expansion if the work is to be properly carried out and in spite of the impatience that is sometimes expressed I have satisfied myself that it would be unwise and wasteful to reach for wider expansion until these preliminary preparations are completed. One other aspect I might touch on in conclusion. We have received and continue to receive offers of all kinds of land from all ends of the country. There are various misconceptions prevalent regarding the growing of trees; one is that trees will grow anywhere under any sort of conditions. That is not so. Tress need soil and certain favourable conditions of wind. Unless these are suitable then it would be foolish waste to spend time and money attempting to develop forestry. The policy of the Department may have been ultra conservative in the past— and I believe it was so—but at the same time I have laid down as policy that we must be reasonably certain to get results before we spend a penny of our Vote in planting. In short, we are anxious to plant every acre of waste land in the country that is not needed for other purposes, provided that timber can be grown on it.
Another misconception that I find pretty general is that any person of average intelligence can get busy in forestry development and direction. On the contrary, forestry is a highly skilled technical job which must, if it is to be successful, be guided and directed by competent trained men who will supervise their crops as carefully as any agriculturist will look after his fields of grain or roots. Allowing for these precautions I think we may claim that we are already well on the way to our programme of expansion and that the foundations of that expansion are being carefully and well laid.
