1886.] RESUSCITATION OF CHOICE TREES. 685 



becoming alive to the necessity of greater care in the preservation 

 of one of the most valuable of tlie natural resources of the 

 Dominion. With us, they require the establishment of some 

 recognised centres whence information could be disseminated, and 

 sound views promulgated on the suljjcct. It would seem, therefore, 

 safe to count upon their active co-operation in such action as 

 I'rofessor Freani advocates. If distance be urged as an objection, 

 it is sufficient to reply that " the school could be reached in less 

 than a fortniglit from any part of the United Kingdom, and cheap 

 ocean fares and inexpensive living in the Canadian Forest School 

 would add to the attractiveness of such an institution. Above all, 

 it should be remembered that the subject has more than merely 

 local bearings. As M. Boppe points out, the total extent of the 

 forests in the British Empire is to be reckoned in hundreds of 

 millions of acres ; and it is a matter of the greatest Imperial 

 importance that this vast accumulation of forest wealth should be 

 turned to the best account, not squandered away through ignorance 

 or neglect. Hitherto applications from different parts of the 

 Empire for the services of competent forest officials have been met, 

 if at all, wdth the greatest difficulty. And if the Imperial 

 authorities are to be asked to adopt some measures calculated to 

 promote the interests of British forestry, it is not inopportune to 

 urge that the policy to be pursued should be Imperial in its scope 

 and aim. In no part of the Empire can it be contended that 

 equal facilities for thorough training in forestry will be found with 

 the same proximity to the mother country as in the case of 

 Canada. And it is to be hoped that no effi^rt will be spared to 

 demonstrate the feasibility of establishing there, upon some such 

 basis as we have roughly sketched, a school which would afford 

 admirable means for the education of efficient foresters, by whom 

 the much-desired improvement in British sylviculture would be 

 brougiit about, and the timber suppl}' of the Dominion would be 

 carefully protected and fostered, and by whom, too, similar valuable 

 services could be rendered in distant parts of the Empire. 



THE RESUSCITATIOX OF CHOICE TREES BY 

 TOP-DRESSING. 



Q\ PECIMEX trees on lawns often suffer in liealth, and have their 

 lO beauty impaired, if not quite destroyed, by sheer impoverish- 

 ment. Nor is this to be wondered at, for nature's true restorers, 

 decomposing grasses or otlier plants, and dead leaves, are sedulously 

 swept up and carried far away from the roots. The results of those 



