Sir, - Further to Y's column about Avondale and Samuel Hayes (In Time's Eye, September 15th) the premiums, or grants, first offered for the planting of trees by the Dublin Society in 1741 were funded by the Dublin Parliament from 1761, and thus formed probably the first state planting grant scheme anywhere in the world. The money was stopped by the Westminster parliament as soon as possible after the Act of Union, 1801.
The scheme was restored by the Irish State Forest Service under the first Irish Forestry Act, 1928, and has continued since then.
And Ireland is supposed to have no forestry tradition? - Yours, etc.,
Niall O'Carroll, Ballynakillew, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.
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PS: Augustine Henry studied forestry at Nancy, not Nantes.