1884.] INSTRUCTION IN FORESTRY. 201 



Now let us go to British India, for which we are responsible. India 

 was once perhaps the most richly wooded country on the face of tlie 

 earth. Its forests too have been largely destroyed. Under the native 

 rule no care was taken, and when the country came under the British 

 control, England was too much occupied with war and politics to 

 attend to this question. Had we understood the subject scientifically, 

 however, I have no doubt we should have found time to attend to it 

 But, of course, the reason why we did not attend was that we did not 

 know how. After a too long slumber in the matter, we have awakened 

 and you will be glad to hear that, in spite of our past wastefulness of 

 timber, nevertheless we have in India simply the largest Forest 

 Department in the world. We have now got al)out 70,0(»0 square 

 miles of State forests within British India, under more or less of 

 scientific care. Out of that number 25,000 square miles are under 

 forestry of the most scientific kind that can be devised. The remain- 

 ing 50,000 are under very tolerable and respectable preservation. 



A word as to other countries in which England is more or less 

 interested. You will hear the same story about the destruction of 

 forests in Canada. When I was there last year so much public 

 attention was being aroused to tlie subject that Arboricultural and 

 Forestry Departments \wer^ l)eing founded in j\Iontreal. 1 am 

 occasionally favoured with Canadian pamphlets, some of them bearinff 

 striking headings of this nature, ' Alarming Destruction of Forests in 

 North America.' I know it is true, and I am glad to find that the 

 Americans are beginning to be awakened on the subject. But it is to 

 be feared that they will not succeed in preserving much of their 

 forests. 



In the West Indies you hear the same melancholy accounts of the 

 devastation of forests there. It is, perhaps, possible that North 

 America may get on without forests — that they will only lose a source 

 of wealth. But in the West Indies they will not only lose a source 

 of wealth, but they will injure their climate and fertility. A similar 

 state of things exists in South Africa, for there also vou hear the 

 same sad story of the alternation of drought and flood. But this 

 danger has not yet arisen in Australia, for the reason that tlie forests 

 there are so far inland that destructive agencies have not yet been 

 able to reach them. The future problem for Australia to solve is the 

 best means of preserving the water supply, — of taking the scanty 

 rivers close to their source, and husbanding them for the use of the 

 great communities springing up near the coast. If the Australians 

 destroy the forests, they will destroy their chance of future water 

 supply and irrigation in a land which is proverbially thiisty. 



Now I have given you some idea as to what forestry is, and the 

 reason why you want it. You will perceive that it is not a mere 



