672 A NATIONAL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. [Mar. 



this I may add, I have no doubt of it being so ; but I have 

 no proof to adduce in support of my belief beyond inferential con- 

 clusions from facts known to me in regard to what lias occurred 

 elsewhere. 



Official reports have been issued which show, some that in 

 India, and others that in South Africa, a great improvement in the 

 condition of State forests has been consequent on the intrusting of 

 the administration, supervision, or management of these to officials 

 who had been trained in Schools of Forestry on the continent of 

 Europe. And look where we may amongst countries on the continent 

 of Europe, we see forests and woodlands the condition of which has 

 been so greatly improved within the currency of the present 

 centur}^ that excepting for contrast with the condition in which 

 they previously were, comparison seems out of the question. This 

 improvement has been coincident with the establishment and 

 maintenance of Schools of Forestry in these countries, and can be 

 traced directly to the work of men trained in these schools. 



To the inference we draw from these facts, it may be objected 

 that in India, in South Africa, and in most of the countries on the 

 continent of Europe, both the state of the forests and the require- 

 ments of the country are greatly different from what is the case in 

 Britain. To such an objection my reply would be : what is 

 attempted in existing Schools of Forestry is, not to lay down hard- 

 and-fast prescriptions as to what must be done in any case and 

 every case, but to impart to the students a knowledge of forest 

 science, to show in the lecture, and, where practicable, illustrate in 

 the forest, how this may be applied in the management of forests ; 

 and to train them how under varying circumstances to determine 

 the varying form which that application may take. And I may 

 add that in Denmark the state of the woodlands a few years ago 

 did not differ greatly from the condition of many forests and wood- 

 lands in Britain ; and the treatment to which they have been sub- 

 jected differs in no greater degree from what is followed in other 

 countries on the continent of Europe than is attributable to the 

 same principle being adapted to altered conditions consequent on 

 altered circumstances. And what has been done in Denmark 

 might be done in Britain. 



So far as I have had opportunity and occasion to formulate for 

 myself an opinion in regard to the qualifications of foresters in 

 Britain for the discharge of the duties to which they are called, that 

 opinion is one of which did they know it they might perhaps be 

 proud. But I have not found amongst them generally that know- 

 ledge of forest science, including knowledge of the physiology and 

 pathology of arborescent vegetation, which is imparted to students in 



