188C.] A NATIOXAL .SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 545 



more or less forest, neglected, detached, and inharmonious in effect 

 by reason of its having been, from circumstances well known to you 

 all, so very much subdivided, that an eftbrt must be made, as soon 

 as the outlying portions are restored to your care, to blend them all 

 into one harmonious, albeit diversified, whole ; consequently the 

 land must be carefully surveyed, and mapped out accurately, in 

 order that a reliable plan may be obtained on which to work out a 

 scheme which may guide the conservators of the forest for all time ; 

 and, lastly, that much planting, and the careful thinning and prun- 

 ing of existing trees, must be judiciously prosecuted for many 

 years." It is added : " The execution of all these works would 

 form the best possible groundwork for the practical training of the 

 foresters in the future." And in the programme of study which 

 he submits, he says : " If the course of study should extend over 

 four years, the first two to be spent at Epping Forest, where the 

 trees have been neglected for so many years, it will be the object 

 of the staff to organize order, and produce regularity out of dis- 

 order and chaos ; the third year should be spent in the New Forest, 

 which is a tract of sufficient extent, having over 60,000 acres, and 

 which, having been in Government keeping, may be supposed to 

 be a farther advance and development of the principles pursued by 

 the student during his first two years at Epping; the fourth year 

 should be spent at Windsor, where may be seen the full develop- 

 ment of the principles commenced by the student at Eppino-. 

 After this course of training, those pupils who have diligently 

 applied themselves to their studies during the four years should 

 be drafted off to other fields of usefulness, either at home or 

 abroad." 



Should it be deemed desirable, as I think it is, that provision be 

 made for still higher or more varied training being given to a select 

 number of the more promising students, the desideratum can be 

 met. In more than one of the most celebrated Schools of Forestry 

 on the Continent, provision is made for the attendance of foreigners, 

 and these enjoy all the educational advantages of the alumni on 

 specified terms. Assuming that the teacher of Botany — if there 

 be but one — -or one of them, if there be more, be qualified by 

 knowledge of the language spoken, such advanced students might 

 be sent under his direction to attend at one of these continental 

 Forest Schools a summer session ; and possibly permission might be 

 obtained from the same or some other School of Forestry for the 

 British students to accompany the students of the country on their 

 autumnal excursion, and to take part with them in the forest work, 

 to the great advantage of teacher and taught, and through them of 

 the country at large. 



