6Q8 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Mar. 



Avhich it is given, if we may judge from some remarks on the letter 

 in our contemporary by Professor Fream, with whom originated the 

 idea of an Anglo-Canadian Forestry School, with its headquarters in 

 Canada. He says, " Mr. Thiselton Dyer's letter shows how im- 

 portant it is that the Dominion authorities should take this matter 

 in hand at once. I say the Dominion authorities advisedly, because 

 although the Provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are certainly 

 beginning to devote some attention to forest conservancy, yet most 

 of the sister Provinces continue to view the subject somewhat 

 apathetically. The approaching Indian and Colonial Exhibition 

 seems likely to afford an admirable opportunity for action in this 

 direction, and the Dominion should have no difficulty in securing 

 the services of one or two thoroughly trained practical foresters who 

 might act as instructors in the suggested school, and to whose care 

 the management of large areas of forest lands might be entrusted." 

 This is business-like and on the right lines. No doubt such 

 foresters are obtainable at once if the conditions of service are made 

 sufficiently favourable. But to wait till they are educated from our 

 own youth would at the present rate of progress be practically 

 waiting till by the complete destruction of the forests there would 

 be nothing left to conserve. All that is being done at present is 

 exclusively in the interests of India, and we think it is gravely 

 incumbent on the Imperial Government to satisfy themselves that 

 this question should at once be settled on a basis broad enough to 

 meet the requirements of every section of the empire — in which 

 forest conservancy is important. Dr. Farquharson's letter, already 

 alluded to, treats the subject in such a broad and liberal spirit, and 

 contains so many useful and practical suggestions on the general 

 question of forestry education, that we take the liberty of giving it 

 in full. He says : — 



I fear that my opinion regarding the expediency of establishing 

 a School of Forestry in Canada can really be worth very little, as I 

 know nothing of that country or its local conditions, beyond a 

 general impression that its woodland wealth has hitherto been 

 somewhat neglected, and that repair has hardly balanced destruction. 

 But in the face of the vast importance of the subject, and the com- 

 paratively little attention hitherto given to it by English-speaking 

 races, I sliould gladly welcome any addition to the slender provision 

 now made for affording real scientific instruction. I presume that 

 the Canadian School would supplement rather than supersede others ; 

 that young men in training for official positions might, if they 

 pleased, take up their whole course of study there, whilst those who 

 prefeiTed Cooper's Hill, or Edinburgh, might be encouraged, or even 

 obliged to make a trip afterwards across the Atlantic to see how 



