10 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
whom it was expected would take advantage of such a class, are 
just those who attend. 
Under the new ordinances of the Commissioners for the estab- 
lishment of Boards of Studies, the forestry lecturer will, in the 
future, have a more intimate connection with University affairs 
than was possible under the old statute, but I need not tell you 
that the realisation of our hopes of a professorship foundation 
ought alone to satisfy our aspirations for the future of our 
science. 
And this leads me to the last point upon which I desire to say 
a word or two to you to-day. The mention of our contemplated 
professorship will naturally raise the question,—What of the 
tndowment Fund? How is it getting on? I see the Seeretary 
will afterwards make a statement thereanent, and I shall not, 
therefore, forestall him further than in expressing a fear that the 
account he will give us is not a very rosy one. We must confess 
it is a little disappointing that after those several years of effort, 
the endowment at which we aim is not nearly reached. It is a 
misfortune that our landed proprietors do not see their interest in 
the direction to which we point, but we cannot compel to contribute 
men who do not see their way to do so of their own will, and un- 
questionably the general circumstances of the times are not such 
as to favour the accumulation of such a fund as we seek to 
establish. But disappointment to the members of this Society who 
have laboured so long, and who are now beginning to achieve, is not 
discouragement ; and I have no doubt about an ultimate suecess. 
But possessed with this feeling, I am none the less awake to the 
circumstances of the hour, and I have put it to myself whether 
there is no other way by which we could gain a more advanced 
position towards our goal, which would enable us better at present 
to do what we realise as needful in our cause, and which would, 
at the same time, favour our prospects of securing what we 
desire. I think there is, and in the few minutes more I would ask 
you to allow me to detain you, I will briefly state a suggestion 
which I venture to think is not too chimerical for consideration, 
nor too ambitious for realisation. 
Technical education in our day is no longer the vague expression 
it was within the memory of many of those here present, covering 
the general exposition of the application of scientific method to 
arts and manufactures, It has passed far beyond that to the stage 
of specialisation, and it is, or ought to be, the aim of all those 
