An Address before the American Forestry Association. 281 



tion of agricultural instruction the time has not come to teach forestry as 

 a science — I say science because it is susceptible of exact results : — whether, 

 in the subdivision of rural interests, the practice of tree-planting should 

 not be clearly recognised among the present and pros^^octive industries of 

 our people. Of course it is not to be supposed for aa instant that all 

 localities are favourable, alike promising profit. The manufacturer, when 

 he determines to locate his works, seeks the point either where a ready 

 market may be found, where the raw material is readily obtained, where fuel 

 for steam-power, or where water-power is at command; some one or more of 

 these conditions are indispensable to success. So he who plants forests 

 must use proper discrimination, or he will find either the accumulated 

 interest on laud, or the cost of reaching the market for his lumber, may 

 eat up the natural accretion of a generation's growth. So, also, the planter 

 must study the adaptation of special trees to his soil, exposure to climatic 

 changes, time which he can afford to await returns, and other circumstances 

 incident to the enterprise. He must study, and carefully study too, the 

 methods of procedure : the gathering of the seed and its preservation until 

 sown, the proper time and method of sowing, whether it be in seed-beda, 

 under sun-screens (the young plants to be subsequently transplanted into 

 nurseries preparatory to being permanently planted out) or, as in the case 

 of oaks, walnuts, chestnuts, and trees of similar character, the seed to be 

 planted in the field, or mountain-side, to remain undisturbed. In all these 

 processes there is so much skill requisite, technical skill only attainable by 

 practice and observation, that it will at once occur to the reflecting farmer, 

 or cotton planter, that he is probably unprepared to embark in the enter- 

 prise. Having been convinced of that fact he has already taken the first 

 ' step towards success ; the next will be, if he decides to plant, to employ 

 the service of an expert — a class of men in this branch of industry not 

 readily obtainable in this country. What then is to be done ? Do not 

 start till he is ready to send his son to an agricultural school, where he may 

 be taught the whole a b c to z, the alpha and omega of forestry. Whilst 

 studying tliaf he will acquire knowledge of natural science, and other in- 

 formation invaluable in rural life. I am aware that agricultural schools 

 under the patronage of State governments have not been uniformly suc- 

 cessful ; indeed, it is only candid to admit that they have in some cases, 

 that of our own State of Pennsylvania included, been sad failures ; Ijut 

 should we not profit by our experience in these particulars, and henceforth, 

 like the skilful mariner, avoid the shoals ? There are, however, opportu- 

 nities extant for instruction, and it is our province to provide others with- 

 out delay ; failing such, under special circumstances, the entering a youth 

 for a term as a pupil in a well-conducted nursery may accomplish all that 

 is contemplated. In such an establishment he could, in two years at most, 

 be initiated into the art and mystery of rearing trees from seed, the pro- 

 cesses of culture, their care, preservation, and transplanting ; and if he were 

 of an investigating, inquiring mind, he would acquire visions of nature 

 which have never entered into the view of multitudes who take rank as 

 successful farmers. 



