asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture if he will state the number of seedlings and transplanted forest trees which were imported into the Saorstát for the Department's forestry operations during the last two years, the cost of these trees, and the approximate number which failed or required replacement as compared with trees obtained in Ireland; and whether a larger proportion of the Department's requirements could not have been obtained from home nurseries, employing Irish labour, where trees properly grown and acclimatised are produced in the vicinity of the areas being afforested.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - IMPORTATION OF FOREST TREES.
The numbers for the two years in question were 6,308,000 and 6,165,000, respectively. The cost for these years was £6,380 and £4,386. Twenty-seven per cent. of imported seedlings and thirty-three per cent. of those purchased in this country required replacement. The percentage of failures in transplants received from other countries and from home nurseries was practically the same—approximately thirteen per cent. in each case. (In the case of transplants from the Department's own nurseries the percentage of failures was from five to ten per cent.)
In regard to the concluding portion of the question, the Department have not lost sight of the desirability of utilising home supplies as far as feasible, and their policy has been to aim at raising the whole of their supplies of the more expensive varieties of trees in their own nurseries. The cheaper seedlings can, however, be purchased at a cost almost as low as that at which they can be raised by the Department. The considerable increase in the planting programme in recent years has rendered it difficult for the Department's nursery operations to keep pace with the planting programme. In addition to the Department's own plants, about one-third to one-half of the plants required can usually be obtained in the Free State nurseries. With the development of the Department's nurseries and of existing home nurseries, the importation of trees will be reduced to a minimum; but at present a shortage in any particular species cannot always in a particular year be met from home supplies. The question of increasing, as far as possible, the proportion of plants raised by the Department or purchased from home nurseries is one to which attention will continue to be given.