606 PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. [Feb. 



limited in scope, and had too much of the rule of thumb character 

 in it, as applicable to the needs or requirements of this country, to 

 qualify the ordinary practitioner to discharge the duties of a 

 responsible forest officer in India. Up till ten years ago it appears 

 from Mr. Tedder's evidence that we were accustomed to send our 

 forestry students in training for India to iSTancy, with the result 

 that, as most of them entered on their course of studies there in 

 ignorance of the language, a large amount of their time was wasted, 

 and the benefits of instruction minimized. Xow, the system is that 

 five to seven or eight students for training in forestry subjects are 

 admitted annually to the Eoyal Engineering College at Cooper's 

 Hill, and receive special instructions in botany, forestry, and sylvi- 

 culture in addition to other subjects bearing on and required in the 

 responsible positions they aspire to. The great drawback to this 

 system is the absence of practical instruction in the field, or rather 

 in the forest, whereby the teaching in the classroom may be illus- 

 trated. On this point Colonel Pearson expressed . himself in favour 

 of the founding of a Chair of Forestry at the Edinburgh University, 

 but remarked that he had no actual faith in lectures in the school 

 except they were also illustrated by practical instruction. " If," he 

 said, " you tell a man in the lecture-room that such and such 

 consequences will take place, and do not show him the consequences 

 on the spot, he does not believe anything about it ; it goes in at one 

 ear and out at the other ; he will think it all nonsense ; but if you 

 want to impress your teaching upon him, you must take him out 

 into the forests and show him the operations of nature." Regarding 

 this it may be said that very much would depend upon the previous 

 experience and attainments of the student. If he has come direct 

 from school, and has had no experience of forestry practice, no doubt 

 lectures in the classroom would be of little benefit to him without 

 practical illustration. But if he has had general practical experi- 

 ence in forestry work in this country, and is somewhat acquainted 

 with the literature of the profession, he will not fail to profit by the 

 lectures even in the absence of practical illustrations in the forest. 

 A forestry school with the practical facilities that attach to those 

 on the Continent is impracticable in this country ; that is a point 

 that may be conceded at once as likely to remain for ever an impos- 

 sibility. But is it required, or rather is it an indispensable 

 necessity ? We think not. We could not, even with the most 

 complete educational machinery that exists on the Continent, qualify 

 young men in a two or three years' course at school to enter on 

 responsible positions immediately on the completion of that course. 

 They must afterwards pass through a probationary course in some 

 subordinate capacity, giving them opportunities for applying their 



