The forestry revival in Eire.

Abstract

For the last three or four hundred years, that part of Europe now known as Eire has had the unenviable distinction of occupying the lowest place in a small group of countries which have touched rock-bottom in the matter of forest area to total land surface. The three constituent countries of Great Britain; England, Scotland, and Wales, have all been more or less in much the same condition, the differences being so slight that they might almost be disregarded for practical purposes, and at the end of the seventeenth century it is probable that all parts of the British Isles were at a lower ebb as regards woodland than at any other time subsequent to the Norman Invasion. This was brought about in much the same way. Mild winters permitted continuous grazing by large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, leading to the destruction of seedlings which should have taken the place of trees dying, falling by wind, or other causes. Only in England due to the manorial system on the one hand, and the preservation of crown forest on the other, was there any check on this movement, and the result was the existence of 5 % of that country under wood at-the time referred to...