Arthur Young in 1776 noted that a tenant in Ireland with a lease of over 12 years, had, on expiry of the lease, to agree to a valuation set by a jury on the trees he had planted. So, in spite of the efforts of the Dublin Society (now RDS) which encouraged tree planting, it was largely the landlords, not the tenants, who were into serious planting. A unique document, The Meath Tree Register gives many insights into conditions in the county. It was, it appears, the only county report of its kind to survive, others having been lost in the Custom's House fire of 1922, according to Kieran Dunne, writing in a new book Studies in Local History - Meath." The planting by the better-off was often impressive. In quiet times, John Smith of Kells, a brewer, for example, swore - there were procedures to be gone through - that he had planted on land held by him from the Marquis of Headford: 6,400 Scotch fir, 7,500 larch, 1,150 elm, 1,500 ash, 300 alder, 300 spruce, 100 chestnut. A businessman, he could expect a profit when his lease expired, but he was not in the top class of planters. Those who established the really large plantations didn't have any doubts about fixity of tenure. They were the landlords. Consider Ferdinand Meath McVeigh, who planted 298,659 trees on land near Kells. In one year, he registered over 43,000 plantings, and 15,460 oaks among them wouldn't have come to maturity for maybe a century. Three other men registered plantings of over 100,000 trees. One of them put in 175,036 between 1819 and 1841 near Tara; he was looking far ahead when he put in 27,513 oaks. (Where are they now?)
Before barbed wire, hedges of thorn were the thing required by landlords of their tenants. On one estate, ditches had to be dug and four whitethorn (or if you like, hawthorn) quicks had to be set for every foot. Then, too, oak, ash or elm saplings at intervals. Most planting took place before the Famine. Legislation gradually saw the passing of land into the hands of the former tenants, and, as the century went on, it was more profitable to use land for growing crops, including for export to England.
Landlords, reading the signs, sold their timber to raise money quickly. Gangs of travelling sawmillers, mostly from England, travelled from estate to estate, cutting all saleable timber. Came World War One, and the end, less than half of one per cent of the country was covered by forest according to Frank Mitchell. This is only an impression of one of the articles in a book which should tell us of much of the byways of our history. Another Day - The Irish Tobacco Industry. Editor Liam McNiffe. Bought in Dom Tighe's establishment in Kells (£8.99). Y