Scottish Arboricultitral Society i 567 



Schools of Forestry. 



Rev. J. Cronmbie Brown, LL.D., read a paper on Schools of Forestry. 

 He said that he would first supply some information with regard to existing 

 schools of forestry ; secondly, he would state what was the present condi- 

 tion of the question in regard to the establishment of a school of forestry 

 in Britain, or elsewhere, among our English- speaking population ; and in 

 conclusion would i-efer to some subjects, the consideration of which by the 

 Arboricultural Society would elicit information which would be of great 

 value. The schools of forestry on the Continent were educational institu- 

 tions, in which provision was made for leading candidates for employment 

 as foresters through a protracted course of study, similar to what was re- 

 quired in Scotland as a preparation for the so-called learned professions of 

 law, medicine, and divinity. Some three hundred years ago it was per- 

 ceived by Tully, the distinguished minister of Henry IV., that France 

 was being ruined by the destruction of her forests. The evil was not con- 

 fined to France, and for 150 years various measures were devised and 

 adopted with a view to averting the catastrophe ; but it was found that 

 they could at best only retard the destructive process. At length a method 

 was adopted to secure simultaneously and without prejudice to each other 

 a sustained production of wood and timber, to carry out which educated 

 foresters were necessary. 



He then laid on the table for the use of members pamphlets containing 

 information in regard to the schools of forestry in France, Italy, Prussia, 

 Spain, Russia, Sweden, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Austria, Finland, Saxony, 

 and] Baden. In India, as in France and in Germany it was found 

 that the forests were being destroyed, that their destruction was entailing 

 sufferings and privation upon the people, and that more disastrous conse- 

 quences were lowering in the distance. After careful deliberation, it was 

 determined that a body of forest officials, educated at schools of forestry on 

 the continent of Europe, should be formed. 



This might have been considered a bold measure, l)ut the results had 

 justified the steps taken. By progressive amelioration of their condition, 

 the Indian forests had risen greatly in value and had vastly extended, while 

 the revenue from them had increased by hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

 According to " Resolution of Government of India, financial department," 

 Xo. 2012, dated 11th March, 1871, the latest to which he had access, the 

 estimated charges for the following years (1871 — 72) was 4,511,000 rupees, 

 (£451,100), and receipts 5,732,200 rupees (£573,220), showing a surplus 

 of revenue over expenditure of 1,221,200 rupees (£122,120). 



In 1873-4 the surplus was £285,000, both revenue and expenditure 

 being about double what they were ten years previously. This was accom- 

 plished not by an impoverishing of the forests, but by a progressive amelio- 

 ration of them and increase of their pecuniary value. In illustration 

 of this assertion he quoted from a paper by Captain Campbell-Walker, on 

 State Forestry. He then stated somewhat in detail the course of study 

 followed at European schools, and remarked that there might be much in 



