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Beginning in 1855 I planted annually, on an average, for fourteen years, one and a 

 half million larch and Scotch pine, among the heather and granite of Banff and Aber- 

 . deenshire. 



Our process was simply to enclose with wire fence from three hundred to one 

 thousand acres, in districts where direct shelter, ornament and climatic amelioration, 

 with the best chances of economic results were necessary and most likely to be secured. 

 Drainage was thoroughly done where required. Planting carried out by day labour, never 

 by contract, under skilled foremen, one man, under average conditions as to soil and size 

 of plants, notching as many as one thousand a day. Trees were sized according to height 

 and exposure of the ground, and not less than three thousand per acre — aiming at four 

 feet apart all over. Pitting was necessary only with the larger hard and Scotch pine, or 

 with hardwoods. We always had the best success with small plants, seedlings, with 

 conifera on the exposed parts, and not more than two years transplanted in any case. 



Thus the Highlands of Scotland are to-day in possession of many thousands of acres, 

 producing handsome revenue that twenty years ago made a poor show on the rent rolls ; 

 average cost, £3 lO.s. per acre. 



The importance of establishing schools for scientific and practical instruction in 

 forestry was set forth in a valuable paper read by Gen. C. C. Andrews, at the Cincinnati 

 meeting. 



He first stated facts showing the influence of forestry products on the industrial 

 welfare of the country, and the rapid, and in some cases, wasteful consumption of these 

 products without corresponding means for their re-growth. The prosperity of many trades 

 and of vast numbers of artisans depends on the supply of forest products. A school for 

 scientific and practical instruction in forestiy would train men for forest management, 

 and would exert an influence favourable to an improved forest economy. There were 

 more than thirty schools of forestry in Europe, and they had proved highly beneficial. 

 One had just been established in British India. There was not one such school in the 

 United States. This country could not afford to be behind the rest of the world in such 

 a matter. The countries of Europe had experienced forest spoliation like what is now 

 occurring in America, and for many years had been trying to repair the evil. One of 

 their helps was the school of forestry. The public forests of Germany and of some other 

 countries now yield a net income of 4 per cent. 



The United States are deeply concerned in the question. The way in which the 

 public timber lands had been for the last half century and were still being squandered 

 was a discredit to the administrative character of the country. Where separate States 

 for their school lands or railroad companies for granted lands are getting $.30 an acre for 

 timber lands, the United States are either being defrauded of theirs, giving them away, 

 or, at most, getting only $1.25 to* $2.50 per acre. The influence of a School of Forestry 

 would help to educate public sentiment up to a more conservative care of the public 

 timber lands ; and the United States could as properly grant public land to endow one 

 School of Forestry as they did twenty or thirty years ago to endow thirty or forty Agri- 

 cultural Colleges. 



The first line of telegraph was put in operation by the Government of the United 

 States. It had, in many instances, lent a helping hand to science. While higher educa- 

 tion should, as a rule, depend on private support, there were cases where the Government 

 could probably give an enterprise a start, especially where the interests were national, as in 

 the case of forestry, and affected the mechanic arts as largely. 



Besides the Government selling timber lands for a totally inadequate price, the 

 report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office showed that, in spite of a large 

 force of detectives, assisted by United States Attorneys and Marshals, at much expense, 

 $100,000 worth of Government timber was annually stolen and carried away. 



Assuming that a school of forestry, with a man of acknowledged attainments in 

 science like an Agassiz at the head of it, would promote an improved forest economy, 

 then it seemed clearly the interest and duty of the Government to take the initiative in 

 the matter. 



