News and Notes. 325 



presented an eventual risk which the Committee thinks ought not 

 to be run. 



The demonstration forest, besides providing in itself a field for 

 fresh study and research shouU be a centre where data from other 

 parts of Scotland can be collected and compared, and thereby as- 

 sist the application of scientific silviculture to Scottish conditions. 



It is proposed that in addition to the director and other 

 trained officials there should be twenty student-apprentices, who 

 should be housed in a hostel in the forest. It would be im- 

 possible, says the committee, to estimate the probable capital ex- 

 penditure, until an estate had been selected. 



There are about 850,000 acres of private woods in Scotland. 

 None of these privately owned woods are under the charge, or 

 even the personal supervision, of a fully trained forest officer. 

 Nine-tenths of them are lamentably understocked, and what might 

 be a great source of wealth and employment is going to waste for 

 want of the application of scientific silviculture. The committee 

 is convinced that nothing short of ocular demonstration will 

 overcome the obstacles to their proper development. 



In "Country Life" (London, May 4, 1912, pp. 646-647), E. P. 

 Stebbing briefly recounts some of the work of the students at 

 Edinburgh University, where a full scientific course in forestry 

 leading to the degree of B. Sc. was inaugurated some years ago. 

 The theoretical courses in forestry proper are taken in two con- 

 secutive winter sessions, weekly excursions being made to neigh- 

 boring woods. A large amount of practical work, in both Scot- 

 land and Germany, is given in the advanced courses. 



The ten days' practice to which this illustrated article is de- 

 voted comes at the end of the first theoretical course, and is to 

 personally acquaint the students with the manual labor of the 

 woodsman. They are taught to correctly hold and use spades, 

 billhooks, saws, axes, etc., the program covering nursery and 

 field planting, deepening drains, burning brush, measuring tree 

 diameters and heights, calculating yields, and making thinnings. 



The University of Missouri forest school will run a camp on 

 the lands of the Missouri Land & Mining Co. at West Eminence, 



