1S8 INSTRUCTION IN FOBESTBY. [Jan., 



INSTRUCTION IN FOBESTBY* 



By SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, Baht., G.C.S.L, D.C.L., LL.D., bvj. 



^OKESTRY is at first sight a very picturesque subject^ 

 and indeed I might, if time permitted, attempt to depict to 

 your imaginations the sylvan glories of the earth. I should be 

 delighted to do so, as I am extremely fond of sketching the trees in 

 the forests which I am about to mention, and have painted them 

 frequently. But T must not be tempted to stray into these charming 

 paths. 



I apprehend that forestry is a subject very little attended to in this 

 country (England), and I must ask you to consider what is forestry ? 

 No doubt you will be inclined to say you have never attended to it 

 or thought about it, and that being the case you will be still less able to 

 give an opinion as to what is instruction in forestry. 1 will endeavour 

 to give you a practical answer, but in order that I may do so I 

 must ask you for a few minutes to accompany me in imagination 

 upon a short tour round the world. 



We will begin our tour with our own native land, and we ijiust at 

 once admit that in no country is forestry so little thought of as it 

 is here. And why ? Because England does not lie under the 

 necessities which press upon other nations and compel them to study 

 forestry. We do not trouble ourselves much about forestry, for three 

 reasons. First, because we have, as is generally known, a superabund- 

 ance of rain. Secondly, because we have, owing to the rainfall and 

 to our naturally rich soil, a perfect carpet of vegetation, which 

 preserves from destruction all the rich ' humus ' (that is the scientific 

 name) or soil with which the land is covered. Thirdly, because we 

 are blessed with the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, which moderates our 

 climate. If you have travelled in Scandinavia or Canada you will 

 know the decided difference the Gulf Stream makes to our climate. 

 If we had not that stream we should be obliged to do sonjetliing in 

 the direction of restoring those forests which were the glories of the 

 land in the time of Eobin Hood. And how about Scotland ? It is 

 richer in forests than England, but still there remains the fact that 

 at the best within the last fifty years Scotland never had more than 

 a million of acres under forests, and that is just one-twentieth of her 

 total area of twenty millions of acres. Now, despite the efforts of 

 arboriculturists, and of public-spirited men in Scotland, even that 

 comparatively small acreage of forest land is dwindling away. The 



* A speech delivered before the National Association for the Promotion of Social 

 Science. 



