166 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Jan. 



WoEKING-Men'S LeCTUKES on FoKESTEY AN11 HORTICULUKE. — Dr. 



Brown, inspired liy the arboricultural motto wliieli is figured on 

 the Exhibition medals, returns to the charge. Xeed our readers be 

 reminded how " Samuel ]5ro\vn " and " Haddington " are associated 

 with one great movement in adult education. Further, Dr. Brown 

 liimself may justly claim the credit of inaugurating the now popular 

 method of penny readings for the working - classes. Need we 

 wonder, then, if the enthusiastic old man longs for a practical 

 commencement of the much-tallced-of Edinburgh Forestry School. 

 Not to go back on the mistakes discovered by experience in the 

 working of Mechanics' Institutes, it may just be noted that an effort 

 made last winter in Edinburgh to give appropriate science teaching 

 to workins; gardeners was not a success. At the same time, the 

 continuous efforts of the Health Society appear to warrant the hope 

 that Saturdaj' afternoon or e\'eniug lectures, such as Dr. Brown 

 suggests, but also including horticulture specially in its relations to 

 city life, might attract large audiences. The method of the Health 

 Society embraces free admission to the lectures, but a graded annual 

 subscription of members, which may be compounded by a single 

 payment of a guinea ; while the privileges embrace a free copy of 

 the lectures delivered during the season. This appears financially 

 more practical than the uniform penny at the door. 



FoKESTAL ExPEKiMENT STATIONS. — There are now seven such 

 stations in Germany, instituted since 1868, and carried on at an 

 expense of over £600Q annually. The primary stations are State 

 institutions connected with Schools of Forestry ; but in addition, 

 there are sub-stations without limit, in charge of practical foresters. 

 The problems proposed embrace such questions as the influence of 

 forests npon soil and climate, the proper uses and methods of forest 

 litter, how to thin properly, and the like. The experiments are 

 often spread over periods of from five to ten years. From two able 

 pamphlets before us by Adolphe Leue of Ohio, it appears that the 

 American Forestry Congress have taken up this matter very heartily, 

 so that we may speedily anticipate a cordon of such primary and 

 secondary stations throughout America, in connection with the State 

 Agricultural Colleges. Is there no urgency for some such similar 

 movement in Britain ? Such stations would serve the place of the 

 rliniqv.cs of the medical student to the young forester. ' To put the 

 matter in a practical compass : Why not set about inaugurating such 

 an experimental station, if only a few acres on our western coasts, 

 which the late William Gorrie advocated to experiment on half- 

 hardy introductions from such foreign habitats as California or New 

 Zealand into Britain ? 



