574 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



of destruction. This is now authoritatively admitted and referred to by the 

 Under-Secretary of State for India — Mr Grant Duff— who, in introducing his 

 financial statement in the House of Commons, in the last session of Parliament, 

 said (referring to India Forest Conservancy) — ' No one who had not looked into 

 this subject, had the faintest idea how terrible were the effects, over wide regions 

 of the globe, of carelessness in keeping up a proper proportion of trees. 



*" Let any one to whom the whole matter was new, turn to the remarkable work 

 of the American Minister at Florence, ]\lr Marsh, upon ' Physical Geugraphy as 

 Jlodified by Human Action,' and he will shudder at the dangers which we have 

 only just escaped. If our predecessors in India had known what we know, much 

 of the enormous expense which we are now being put to with regard to irrigation 

 would have been quite unnecessary. But the mistakes of former days are past 

 praying for, and we can only now rejoice that the conservation of the forest has 

 been recognised as a great State necessity, and that a regular forest department 

 has been inaugurated, which will take to India the science of France and Ger- 

 many.' Now, gentlemen, with regard to this speech of the Indian Secretary, I 

 have a remark to make. The schools of forestry in these countries are famous, 

 and deservedly so ; but I am proud to say that, in my humble opinion, Scotland, 

 without any school of forestry, is equally famous in this department. And one 

 of the necessary qualifications — in fact, the concluding touch to the education of 

 those young foresters, who are, according to Mr Grant Duff, ' to carry to the 

 East the science of France and Germany '- — is, that they must for a time, after being 

 in France and Germany, have studied under some approved Scotch forester in 

 Scotland — to rectify, I suppose, any erroneous ideas imbibed in France and Ger- 

 many previously. Yes, gentlemen, in the ranks of this Society there have been 

 found many scientific foresters, who have been chosen by the Government, and sent 

 forth to our Indian empire ; and at the present moment, if I am not mistaken, two 

 young men— members of the Scottish Arboricultural Society — are about to follow 

 those pioneers who have carried the name of our Society to the jungle and the 

 Himalayan peaks, and who are already showing that Scotch energy and shrewdness 

 are not unequal to grapple with the diffic\ilt problem of the conservancy of the 

 Indian forests." 



EDUCATION. 



To THE Editor of the 'Gardener.' 



Sir, — Much has been written within the last few years on education for gardeners. 

 "Without saying one word against it, for it is invaluable, particularly to the 

 class of gardeners who represent the minority — the noblemen's gardeners — for my 

 part, I think that little education is wanted for the generality of gardeners. In 

 fact, I think education is rather a drawback than otherwise to many gardeners, for 

 I really think that many employers do not care about educated servants. If they 

 can get a man to produce plenty of fruit, vegetables, and flowers, that is all that 

 is required of him. In fact, the generality of places require a man to be 

 a thorough practical gardener, and at the same time to be a common labourer. 

 That is one reason why I think education is only required by one gardener in fifty. 

 If you will kindly allow me space in your valuable magazine, I will give your 

 readers a short history of a gardener, if I might be allowed to call myself one. 

 In the first start off I served an apprenticeship at a nobleman's place, where they 

 kept about twenty men in the gardens; next I went to another large place for 



