5 1 8 The yoiirual of Forestry 



The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone as a 

 W ood\A/ard. 



A WELL-EXECUTED photogTaph of the ex-Premier as a woodward has been 

 recently published. 



As a spealdng likeness it is excellent; the position is of the self-imposed 

 toiler seated in front of a tree he has been labouring at, and made sonie 

 progress towards felling, as evidenced by the chips around him. It appears to 

 be an ash, doubtless the one the newspapers stated to be fifteen feet in cir- 

 cumference, in his park at Hawarden. On that occasion he spoke of waste 

 products being utilized and becoming a gain instead of a loss. Of course 

 til is gentleman's aim is to maintain robust health more than to make a 

 display of a forester's ability except as an exemplar, to give dignity to 

 hard toil. England may well be proud of such a statesman and scholar. He 

 finds that the mere effort of redundant eloquence is inadequate to carry off 

 the massive energy of his nature, but the stalwart strokes of his axe 

 fittingly serve for that end. 



By the far-reaching gaze his thoughts are shown not to be on his work- 

 but grasping a world's action by power of thought. 



A working woodward would take exception to the double curved handle 

 io his ae ,and -to the axe having too much "heel" to the blade 

 for hard wood, two technical defects which a woodward's axe should 

 not have : such a tool might do for lopping, but it is not an axe a wood- 

 ward would select for felling an ash. In fact, for a tree half fifteen feet in 

 circumference, no forester who knew his business, and the value of time 

 and timber, would think of chopping a hardwood tree down,* Ijut would 

 use the saw, and with a mate or two would economize time, and save timber 

 of more market value than the freehold' ground the tree stood upon, and 

 ensure a better and safer fall. 



Amateur foresters are apt to accept the tools offered them for use, in the 

 same manner as gentlemen ride out with just the bits, and stirrups, and 

 saddle gear the groom chooses to give them, often with sad results. 



When this great thinker and hard worker shall have devoted a little time 

 to the technics of toil, he will find fair scope for energy of thought, which 

 might help to raise the humble labourer to the grade of an artisau, and gi\'e 

 to the student the capabilities of the workman. At present the high barrier 

 between the student who works and the toiler who thinks is books — and 

 the very books which should be a zone of light for the pathway of both ; 

 in these the simplest science is often mystified by pedantic jargon 

 or nonsensical brevity ; requiring an expert to elucidate or dictionaries to 

 define. Time adds to the accumulation, making of science a barrier to 

 knowledge of truth by the worker, utiHty by the thinker, and beauty 

 to both. 



Special trade journals are unostentatiously diffusing correct and com 

 prehensive knowledge amongst the toilers, exalting their aims to truth, 

 usefulness, and beauty in their track of everj'-day toil. J. C. X. 



