ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, AUGUST 7, 1893. 7 
see that much credit can redound to us, nor real advantage to 
forestry. This is a matter, however, upon which every one who 
makes the Excursion of the Society will be able on Saturday to form 
an individual opinion. For myself, I may say that having twice 
visited the so-called Forestry Exhibition at Earl’s Court, once 
shortly after opening, and again last month, I grieve over the 
meagre display presented in the name of forestry, and regret that 
the Society’s name should be associated with it. The Exhibition, 
as every one knows, is essentially a place of entertainment—water 
show, Bastille, switchback, and so forth,—and as such is doubtless 
most successful, and supplies a form of amusement for which there 
is great want in London. But why not call it by its right name? 
Why should “Forestry” be exploité to give a name to the 
Exhibition? I allude to the matter in this place, because I feel 
that harm may accrue to the science from such exhibitions. Any 
one going to the Exhibition with a desire to inform himself upon 
forestry, its present position, its value, and its prospects, could 
not but receive, from the objects shown, a wrong impression 
regarding the importance of the subject; and in these days, when 
we are so strenuously endeavouring to force the attention of people 
in the country to the great interests involved in forestry, it is 
unfortunate that an affair of this kind, calculated to bring our 
science into contempt, should have developed. 
Turning now to educational questions :—When I addressed you 
last year I was able to announce that the scheme for teaching 
practical foresters and gardeners in the Royal Botanic Garden would 
come into operation towards the end of the year, and in conformity 
with the intention I then expressed, a circular, which had the 
approval of leading members of Council, was issued in the autumn, 
—a copy of it will be found appended to my address in last year’s 
part of our Zransactions. A most gratifying response came, in 
the form of no less than 67 applications for admission to the 
course. After sifting the list, and with the co-operation of Edinburgh 
nurserymen, members of the Society, whose action in this matter 
I desire most cordially to acknowledge, 44 of the applicants 
were admitted to the course, some being taken on the staff of the 
Royal Botanic Garden, some being provided for by nurserymen, 
and others had or found private employment in Edinburgh. 
The course was opened in November, and lectures have been 
given up till now on Chemistry, Physics, Entomology, Mensuration 
and Land Surveying, and there has been practical instruction in 
