1885.J DEBATE ON SIR JOHN LUBBOCK'S MOTION. 105 



hear.) The Prime Minister told the House last night that at this 

 period of the session little could be expected from the labours of a 

 Select Committee, but if they were not to expect the establishment 

 of a School of Forestry in this country, they might at least expect 

 that an immense amount of information wovdd be collected and 

 placed at the disposal of the public. It might be asked, What was 

 the difference between forestry and any other mode of culture ? It 

 might be asked. Why should forestry be encouraged by the State in 

 preference to horticulture ? Well, he was prepared to maintain that 

 there was an immense difference between forestry and all other 

 classes of rural industry ; it called for the exercise of an amount of 

 foresight and patience and self-denial on the part of those engaged 

 in it which was not met with to the same extent in such pursuits as 

 agriculture and horticulture. Moreover, the returns to be derived 

 from it were not immediate, but slow in their operation. They 

 might expect from the labours of a Select Committee an immense 

 amount of knowledge, which at present was not accessible. They 

 would receive information on such an important subject as the l^est 

 kind of timber to cultivate in different localities. There was an 

 immense quantity of money wasted just now in the pursuit of 

 mistaken forestry operations. (Hear, hear.) No one who had paid 

 any attention to the subject could fail to be distressed at the 

 hundreds and thousands of acres of neglected woodland which were 

 everywhere to be seen. This did not apply to the rural hedges in 

 England, but when they got into the woodlands and looked around, 

 there was very much to lament and regret. Considering the amount 

 of private energy which had been expended in the formation of wood- 

 land in certain districts, he did not think it was too much to ask the 

 Government to take steps to place within the means of the public 

 the best information which it was possible to obtain, (Hear, hear.) 

 The present Prime Minister, as they all knew, took a great deal of 

 pleasure in some of the pursuits connected with arboriculture — 

 (Laughter) — and it was surely not too much to expect that he would 

 extend his notice to the constructive arts of arboriculture as well as 

 to those which were destructive. (Cheers and laughter.) 



Mr. Gladstone — I will answer the appeal of the hon. member, 

 but I am sorry to say that I must accompany what I have got to 

 say with a criticism. He says he hopes I will consent to add con- 

 structive to destructive arts in arboriculture. I should have hoped 

 that the hon. gentleman would have been disposed to contend, as I 

 am disposed to contend, that those who cut down trees are the only 

 true conservators of our woods. (Cheers and laughter.) He says 

 most truly that there is a multitude of iU-managed woods in this 

 country, because of the superstition of their owners, which prevents 



