I move:—
"That in the opinion of the Seanad it is urgent that the Government shall take effective measures this year to promote the re-afforestation of Ireland in order to stimulate rural industry and to increase the production of fuel and fruit and of timber for wood-workers, etc."
This project comes also to meet the demand for employment. There is ample opportunity and great urgency for this measure, because first with regard to fuel, this country is subject to a wet period during which the ordinary fuel of the country, peat, is injured. Now the rain which injures the peat fuel would increase the growth of the wood fuel. Then, besides, let it be remembered that all over the Continent nations subsist largely upon the effects of wood fuel. In France, Spain, Italy, Germany and elsewhere, wood is the common fuel. In Ireland that also should be the case. In ancient times Ireland was "an island of woods," and was well wooded, but subsequently the invaders destroyed these woods partly owing to exploitation by adventurers, who sold the wood as staves to England and made fortunes from the ruin of the forests of Ireland. All the fuel would appear not merely in the form of sectional pieces of branches and of young trees but also in the form of charcoal, of which large quantities are furnished, for instance, in France and elsewhere, to the cities, and as a consequence the air of these cities is clearer than that of those which burn only coal, and, therefore, more healthy. In the woods, such as in the Black Forest of Germany and in the woods of Norway, local industries are carried on. Wooden toys are made in the houses of dwellers in the woods, and in Norway a great output of artistic wooden utensils takes place. These things, if made, would succeed in Ireland, for of old the Irish were famous for their woodwork, and Irish emigrants to foreign countries, such as to France, carried with them that power and Irish woodwork was famous all over the Continent.
Now, with regard to the next point, that is fruit-growing, that has been strangely neglected all over this country. In some counties, such as Kilkenny and Wexford, there has been a temporary improvement within recent years, but it has been very little encouraged in other parts. There are large portions of the country well fitted for the growth of fruit trees, but they are totally neglected. With the growing of fruit I would include also such articles as nuts and so forth, to which portions of the South of France are largely given up, and to which large portions of Ireland might with profit be adapted. Not only should we consider fruit as valuable for man, but also as valuable for birds. On the Taurus Mountains I was struck with the rowan trees on the roads and on the hillsides, which I was informed were specially for providing fruit for the birds, and that was not merely to feed the birds out of philanthropic notions, but to prevent them from preying upon the crops. That was a matter of good economy and should not be neglected in this country. I have opened the craws of wild pigeons, and I have found them completely filled with fruit from those weeds instead of with corn. The wild pigeons in the woods near Bordeaux, which are treated as articles of commerce, find their food in the woods and in the neighbouring hills there. Then again you have to choose the right kind of trees because certain trees are more suitable for fuel than others. Then there are the great pine forests which furnish in certain cases turpentine and that not merely by bleeding the trees, as is generally done, but by driving steam through them, as is done in the forest near Bordeaux. Formerly that territory was largely a waste, and the population generally had to go on stilts because the soil was not serviceable for pedestrianism. Now these places are sandy, and there are sand-hills which are still called dunes, where the sand blew inland and covered the wastes. I have been there and found that that is all completely reformed and that the sandy hills are changed and grow furze and small bush plants, and on other grounds, they grow pines and trees of that sort.
You have there flourishing forests which were formerly nothing but waste. It may be of interest to know that in these forests there is a compliment to Ireland, because there are vast avenues cut through them in order to prevent any fire from running through the woods, and one avenue receives the name of Avenue Corrigan from the late Sir Dominick Corrigan, an Irishman of note abroad as well as at home. These woods now flourish where, as I say, there was complete waste. I think there should be some effort made to test the possibility of growing certain medicinal herbs and trees in this country besides what nature provides, and nature has provided a number of very important ones, such as the digitalis, which are not used in this country. We buy from foreign lands what we might grow and use at home. There is the eucalyptus tree, known as an Australian tree, growing in the Campagna at Rome for the purposes of sanitation, and I have seen it growing in the demesne of the late Mr. Richard Mahony at Dromore, near Kenmare. It flourished there in the winters which sometimes killed it elsewhere. In ancient times every physician had his lúb-gortín or herb garden. Medicinal herbs were cultivated throughout the country and were known, but now, of course, chemistry has superseded the cruder products by obtaining the minuter alkaloids and the essential medicinal ingredients and they have become more advantageous and more acceptable. That could be done by science in Ireland. That nearly concludes all I have to say upon this subject with this exception, that it is, I think, extremely important that effective measures should be taken this year to prepare and plant such forests. I have seen in the North of Ireland in Innishowen, on the Swilly side, large tracts of sand such as I have seen near the Gulf of Gascony. I have also seen them on the west coast of Donegal and Connaught, notably in the Louisburgh peninsula from Clew Bay to the Killeries and also off the coast of Kerry at Inny strand. There are large tracts of sand there, of which we have some specimens not far off, which might be cultivated quite as well as the sands on the Gulf of Gascony or in the Bay of Biscay in the South of Bordeaux. If this is left over for this year it means the loss of another complete year and, perhaps, the loss of two years. Therefore I would suggest that the Seanad do accept this motion and declare that it is considered urgent that such measures to promote the replantation of Ireland shall be taken this year.
