Revieivs of Books, 55 



'*' Rcguliitions " publishcil by the Secretary of State for ludia in 18G7 and 

 1872, for the selection of candidates for nomination to junior appcint- 

 meuts in the Forest Department in India, wliicli are now pretty well 

 known to those interested, bat are much too long to quote here in full, 

 and we may add that the crop of foresters they have produced does not 

 uppear to be over luxuriant, considering' the immense interests at stake. 



Referring to a dilference of opinion between Professor Balfour, of 

 Edinburgh, and Dr. Drandis, luspecior-Crcneral of Forests in India, np:u 

 the merits of home teaching versus Continental toaeliing of foresters for 

 India, he says: — 



"The remarks made by Dr. Brandis in regird fco the re([uircmeiits of foresb 

 conservation and extension in India are more or less applicable to the re- 

 quirements of forest conserTation and extension in the British colouies, and, 

 I may add, in some of the states in America ; but without entering on the 

 alleged requirements of India, I consider, from what I do know, that the 

 requirements of forest economy in many of our colonies might be met, in 

 accordance \yith the reported views of Dr. Balfour: and great advantage to 

 intelligent foresters who wish to give themselves to the management of 

 forests in Britain, to the proprietors of such forests, and, through them, to 

 the country at largo, might be secured by the establishment of a lectureship 

 on Forest Science in connection with the Edinburgh Arboretum. 



"Not knowing of the desire of Sir liobert Christison to provide faciliDiesfor 

 the stuily of forestry in connection with the University and the Arboretum, 

 I have been endeavouring to meet this felt want; and in do'ng so I have 

 come to know that the desideratum has been felt by many others, including 

 Governors of colonies, noblemen and gentlemen in Britain, the agents of 

 landed proprietors, forestern and nurserymen, and men distinguished for 

 their attainments in science and their endeavours to employ these in the 

 advancement of the interests of man, as will afterwards be shown. 



•' Dr. James Brown, in his treatise on Forestry, himents that there is not a 

 school in Great Britain where young men can learn eUlciently all the branches 

 of study in connection with forestry, and gives the following advice as to the 

 ■way in which a self-supporting institution for that purpose might be esta- 

 blished : 'Let an arboricultural association be formed of some of the leading 

 landed proprietors in the country, with a few men of science among them, 

 having for their object the cultivation of trees on the most approved and 

 improved principles of the age, and the ti-aining up of young men as foresters 

 according to these principles, in order to fill the places of the existing 

 foresters of the old school, and thus as early as possible bring about an 

 improved state of arboriculture for the general welfare of the country.' 



I have been asked, ' How has it come to pass that so little has been done 

 in Britain, while so much has been done on the continent of Europe to raise 

 up a body of foresters, highly educated for the discharge of their duties V 

 My answer must be, hitherto the problem to be solved in Britain did not 

 require the amount of information which was I'equired for the solution of the 

 complicated problems demanding solution there. On the Continent they 

 were threatened in many quarters with a lack of fuel, with a lack of timber, 

 with ruinous desiccation, and with destructive torrents, all consequent on the 

 destruction of their forests, and with the devastation of fertile lands by 

 driftiiig sands, which could only be arrested and utilized by the planting of 

 trees. In Britain we lind fuel in our coal mines, and in many country 

 districts in our peat bogs ; excepting for a short time about the beginning of 

 the present century, when war was raging, we could get timber of every 

 description from beyond the sea; we know little of drought, of torrents, and 

 of driifc sands, and the ditference has told upon our language. While our 

 French neighbours speak of HijluLcaltare, the culture of woods, we speak of 

 Arhorlci-dtare, the culture of trees. While they, in speaking of Les jorHs and 

 of La Gode Fovestlore, i-efer to a country covered more or less with trees, we, 

 in speaking of tlie greenwood and of forestrij, hitherto have thought chiefly 

 of the game and of the chase, or of the shooting of deer. Our forest laws 



