188G.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 667 



ployed of the metropolis. The department of " Woods and Forests ' 

 is a costly one to administer, but it has always a balance to its 

 credit, and there surely could be no better way of disposing of a 

 considerable portion of tliat balance than by expending it on much- 

 needed permanent improvements on the national property, and thus 

 finding work for the labouring poor in these hard times. The 

 organization of a scheme for dealing with this or any other portion 

 of the Government lands requiring improvement should, with such 

 a costly staff as that of the department of " Woods and Forests," be 

 easily and expeditiously accomplished, and there is no need for 

 a very large outlay in working plant, picks and spades being the 

 principal tools wanted for such work. 



Anglo-Canadian Forest School. — The article on the establish- 

 ment of an Anglo-Canadian School, to be found elsewhere in our present 

 issue, v/ill, we believe, be read with interest by all who recognise the 

 importance of the efforts that are being put forth to secure a better 

 appreciation of the value of the forest wealth of the empire than at 

 present obtains in the minds of our rulers. Our contemporary the 

 Canadian Gazette has, since it published the article alluded to, also 

 published comments on the subject by Mr. Thiselton Dyer, Director 

 of the Botanic Gardens, Kew, who gave evidence on the desirability 

 of establishing a oSTational Forestry School before the Select Parlia- 

 mentary Committee on Forestry last summer, and Dr. Farquharson, 

 M.P., who was a member of that Committee. The former gentleman, 

 in commenting on the article, says " it does not appear to me to go 

 to the root of the matter." This need not be wondered at, when it 

 is considered that the article was obviously written to suggest and 

 lead to discussion on a matter whose root has in no sense yet been 

 got at. What light Mr. Thiselton Dyer's letter throws on the 

 subject was well known beforehand to every one whose interest in 

 improved forestry education has been awakened, luit there is no 

 attempt to sift the matter. The fact that the destruction of forests 

 is the only feature of forestry practice at present understood in 

 Canada, is set up as a barrier to the immediate or early establish- 

 ment of a Forest School there. He says, " If, however, in the com'se 

 of a few years, some men, thoroughly trained in the real art of 

 forestry as worked out in Europe, were to obtain employment in 

 Canada, they might establish a nucleus of a Forest School which 

 would, at any rate, be available for the instruction of the numerous 

 subordinate officers who are required in properly worked forests." 

 This is a suggestion that it is evident the Canadians will act upon 

 with a promptness and decision altogether wanting in the terms in 



