Old Moran, in the much praised TV series adapted from John McGahern's fine novel Amongst Women, is near death and wandering around his house and farm. How, he muses, is it that a man has to be near his end before he recognises the beauties of nature all around him - or words to that effect. Some farmers, indeed may be so intent on wresting a living from the soil that they have little time to stand back and admire. But that may be changing as the authorities encourage them with subsidies and advice on the ground to see deciduous trees as a crop worth investing in - a crop that has colour and shape and often familiarity, not like those dark conifers against which so many people have railed. (But we do need them.)
Anyway, COFORD, the National Council for Forest Research and Development, has issued a most elegant and comprehensive guide to those interested in going into this business. Well illustrated, including some of Dr Wendy Walsh's lovely colour drawings. Fergal Mulloy, the director, calls for the present grants and premiums to be continued beyond the present 20-year period. Ash, sycamore, wild cherry, beech and oak are mainly dealt with. The softback book costs £15 in bookshops or from COFORD, Agricultural Building, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4.
But back to old Moran. A sense of wonder, of inquiry as to how nature works, should be at the heart of education. In the odd school, children would be brought out to the grounds, if the school had any, or to the surrounding countryside, to inspect and be instructed, perhaps, on the names and qualities of flowers, weeds, shrubs and trees. Maybe to note the birds along the hedges. Maybe to inspect streams or ponds with accompanying instruction. "How long does it take for that blob in the jelly the frog lays, to come out as a frog?" Or "Look at that acorn which fell last autumn, now sprouting as a treelet in the grass." One master brought his pupils to a quarry and invited them to inspect the rock-face for fossils.
Such opening up of the mind to the world around us is not a luxury. This is a wonderful world and was so, aeons before we all appeared on its surface, and aeons before computers and rockets to the moon. Start at ground level here. A great oak can be more imposing than some of the finest of buildings. And for the old Morans and the younger Morans and the rest of us the move to re-tree this country, especially the broad-leaved campaign, is worth support.