1!)17] Scientific Forestry for the United Kingdom 63 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 16, 1917. 



The Hon. R. Clerk Parsons, M.Inst.C.E., in the Chair. 



Sir John Stirling Maxwell, D.L. 



Scientific Forestry for the United Kingdom, 



My object is to convince you of two things : first, that we require 

 more woods in the British Isles, and, secondly, that it is useless to 

 make them except on sound scientific lines. I shall take the second 

 proposition first. It is not the logical order, but it will be Ijetter to 

 have the nature of the work in mind l)efore considering whether it 

 ought to be undertaken. 



To many people the planting of woods appears so simple a thing 

 that they wonder what part science can play in it, especially when 

 they remember that the grandest forests in the world are the work 

 of untutored Nature. They forget that Nature has been perfecting 

 for ages the intricate machinery of these forests. When man dares 

 to embark on the task of transforming bare ground into forest, he 

 can only succeed Ijy studying Nature's methods, and this is precisely 

 what science does. When I speak of science, please don't conjure up 

 visions of musty Ijooks, glass cases, dried specimens, and professors 

 dictatino- mathematical forrnuUe. Think rather of foresters, eager in 

 eye, brain and hand, living and working in the woods, comparing 

 notes with one anotlier, and \aluing science precisely as they value 

 spade and axe because it is an indispensable tool for their everyday 

 work. Now just as forest tools have to be of good metal, so there is 

 no room in the forest for slipshod science. Forestry, whether as a 

 science or an art, must needs rest on the study of botany, geology, 

 entomology and mathematics. From each of these it receives direct 

 help. But it is more than a mere resultant of these sciences. Its 

 peculiar study is the complex life of tree communities, its practical 

 aim the production of the largest amount of good timber on a given 

 area in the shortest possiljle time. 



Before we consider examples of scientific method applied to 

 forestry, I want you to grasp the extraordinary contrast between the 

 position it holds in this and other civilized countries. In other 

 countries forestry is classed with agriculture as one of the foundation 

 industries on which the security of nations depends. Ifc is an 

 industry which the State has taken specially under its wing for two 

 reasons : first, because large tracts of wood belonging to the nation 



