138 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Dec. 



Betters to the Editor. 



PROJECTED SCHOOL OF FORESTRY IN EDINBURGH. 



SIK^ — Some years since — at au expenditure of, it is said, 

 £20,000 — the citizens of Edinburgh purchased the Arbo- 

 retum, paying for the same by assessment along with other rates, 

 and conveyed it to the Government, to be laid out and main- 

 tained at the expense of the State, in the hope that it would prove 

 a valuable adjunct to a School of Forestry, if such should be 

 established in Edinburgh. 



In the spring of last year, at a meeting presided ovei- by the 

 Marquis of Lothian, it was resolved to hold an International 

 Forestry Exhibition to promote a movement for the establishment 

 of such a school. Upwards of £6000 were subscribed as a fund 

 to guarantee the promoters against loss in carrying out their pur- 

 pose. Before the closing of the Exhibition, at a conference called 

 conjointly by the Scottish Arbori cultural Society and the Executive 

 Committee of the Exliibition, a committee was entrusted with 

 arrangements to provide for the establishment of a School of 

 Forestry, with a permanent museum of forest products. And 

 notice has been given in Parliament by Sir John Lubbock that he 

 will early in this month (December) bring the subject generally 

 under the consideration of the House. 



The Exhibition proved a fair exponent of the forestry of Britain, 

 and of the ideas of forestry generally prevalent in Britain and her 

 colonies and dependencies, with indications here and there of the 

 more advanced forestry of tlie Continent, which has been introduced 

 into the management of forests in India, and is being introduced 

 into some of our colonies. It has been followed by arrangements 

 being made for a similar Forestry Exhibition being opened in London 

 in the Alexandra Palace in spring. And now it is announced that 

 arrangements have been made for holding a Forestry Exhibition in 

 Moscow in the following winter. 



As yet, so far as is known, no School of Forestry has been 

 organized either here or elsewhere in Britain or among any English- 

 speaking population ; and in view of the special advantages offered 

 by Edinburgh as a site for such a school, but with hearty interest 

 in what may be accomplished by others in furtherance of similar 

 schools elsewhere, the Marquis of Lothian, as cliairman of the 

 committee of which mention has been made, is about to issue an 

 appeal, asking contributions in aid of the establishment of a school 



