ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, AUGUST 7, 1893. 11 
in whose power the regulation of such education is entrusted, so 
to foster it that it shall most efficiently supply the needs of the 
population in whose midst it is established, and that cognate 
subjects with a common foundation be taught in combination. 
Now, here in Edinburgh, we may claim to be a great horticultural 
centre, and when we look at arboriculture and sylviculture—at 
forestry—one has to remember that the scientific principles 
we desire to inculcate in those who are to practise the art as a 
science, are fundamentally those which are required for men who 
purpose to devote their lives to horticulture, and that in a great 
many features the work of the agriculturist is founded on similar 
essentials. Thus, three practical subjects then, Agriculture, Horti- 
culture, and Forestry, form a group which by a well-organised 
equipment, might in their fundamental principles be taught in one 
school. When I look around me, in and about Edinburgh, I see 
that already there are agencies through which, in a greater or less 
degree, such teaching is provided for, and carried out. Such 
endowed institutions as the University, the Royal Veterinary 
College, and the Heriot-Watt College spend money on such objects, 
and there are benevolent fountains supplying revenues for this 
purpose—the Board of Agriculture, the Town Council, and the 
County Councils ; and, in addition to the three endowed institutions 
already specified, the Scottish Horticultural Association, the new 
Incorporated School of Agricultural Science, the Royal Botanic 
Garden, are agencies through which some of this money is 
expended; whilst the Highland and Agricultural Society and 
New Veterinary College are engaged independently upon work of 
a similar kind. 
Now, although it is an advantage to be able to dip into 
many purses for the wherewithal for carrying on any sound 
system of education, the multiplication of unregulated and uncon- 
nected outlets must result in a maximum of expenditure, without 
a maximum of result, inasmuch as overlapping in the work per- 
formed is inevitable; and it being manifestly disadvantageous to 
have such a dissipation of means to an end, as I have pointed out 
exists in Edinburgh, the question I ask is this,—Is there no way 
by which some concentration can be brought about? Can we not 
devise some method of combination of forces? I confess when I 
hear of and note the good work that is being done by co-operative 
effort, in such an institution as the Science College of Newcastle- 
on-Tyne—part of the University of Durham—which stole from us 
