1883.] SCOTTISH ARBORICULTDBAL SOCIETY. 49 



Mr. J. Kay said- that the excursions had all along been very pleusurable, 

 but it required a little arrangement to have the practical clement drawn out. 



Mr. J. Gordon, Luss, from practical experience, said that it was difficult 

 to keep a large party well together in going through woods. He agreed 

 that the Society should have a local habitation in Edinburgh, and only 

 one meeting in the year, during which the business could be done. At the 

 excursions the system of drainage, fencing, and planting should be 

 explained, and the daily working of the estate detailed. 



Mr. Dunn said that local meetings might be very well off if, for instance, 

 they went to the Braemar district ; but there were other localities with few 

 Foresters, where it would be difficult to secure a quorum. Nothing 

 but the expense had prevented the Council from making a trial ot 

 local meetings. It was to be hoped that they would have by another 

 year suitable accommodation for the property of the Society, with an 

 official who would attend to the room and receive members who wished 

 to consult the library or inspect the museum. He did not quite agree 

 with Mr. Michie about holding the annual meeting after the excursion. 

 "What he would suggest would be to fix on a day for the meeting, that on 

 the next day the excursion should take place, when the working of the 

 estate and the methods of Forestry could be closely gone into ; then let 

 those who could afford no more time go home, while the others could 

 remain for another day or two getting up the details about everything 

 likely to be useful to Foresters. It was not possible for a company, any 

 more than for an individual, to see everything about a large estate, that 

 ought to be seen, in one day. Speaking from their own knowledge, what 

 could they do towards examining a wood of a few hundred acres in one day? 

 and yet they were expected to inspect, with accuracy and profit, an estate 

 of many square miles in a day ! Everything considered, the members had 

 done wonders at these excursions, and had acquired a vast fund of useful 

 information. The discussions should take place on the eveuiog of the first 

 day's excursion. Eeferring to the copy of Mr. Hunter's ' Woods', Forests, 

 and Estates of Perthshire ' that day presented to the Society, he maintained 

 that that splendid and, from an arborist's point of view, most interesting 

 book was one of the best practical proofs of the value of the Society's 

 excursions. But for these excursions, that book would never have been 

 produced, for the author conceived the idea when attending the first 

 excursion of the Society. 



Mr. John Methven moved that the various suggestions should be 

 remitted to the Council for consideration, which was agreed to. 



The President, in summing up the discussion, said that his own feeling 

 was that they had not taken full advantage of all the opportunities offered 

 by these excursions. He had felt it himself. They had had some 

 admirable guides — none more so than Mr. Gordon — and a great deal 

 depended on that. The great object was to acquire accurate knowledge, 

 and that could only be attained by systematic and careful observation. 

 Any one who had gone an excursion with the late Sir Kobert Christison 

 must have noticed how very exact he was in all his observations. He 



