12 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Professor Somerville,—I sigh for the time when we here in 
Edinburgh shall have combined our energies, and in a similar, even 
more extended college, carry on with effect, and at minimum cost, 
education in the subjects I have mentioned. 
Is that time to be always in the future? Is the time not come 
now? Is it not possible for us to have now, in Edinburgh, a 
college representative of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry— 
a College of Rural Economy ? 
I believe the thing is possible, and I think the time is come 
when an endeavour may, with some prospect of success, be made to 
accomplish the object. There are, of course, difficulties to be 
overcome, but I cannot think they are insurmountable. I mention 
the subject to you to-day because, were the idea realised, our 
forestry teaching would be influenced, and the question of 
horticultural education is also involved, and this audience, com- 
prising so many who are interested in both these branches of 
science, appears to me to be therefore specially fitted to discuss the 
matter with appreciation of the issue, 
How then, you may ask, do I suggest that this concentration 
should be developed, and the college I speak of be established ? 
What we want to get is a channel through which such public 
moneys as are now, or may in future become, available for such educa- 
tion, from whatever source they come, may be applied upon a definite 
and coherent system. Now with regard to the bodies from whom 
such moneys come at present—it is an open secret that the Board of 
Agriculture views with disfavour the sporadic doles it makes just 
now, and would be glad if some means could be arranged through 
which its contributions for education in this district should pass to 
a central representative body; and I do not suppose the Town 
Council or the County Councils would be one whit less disposed to 
contribute to the cause of education when it is better organised, 
than they are now, and I think we may therefore assume that on 
the creation of a central school of teaching, the money which has 
hitherto flowed in diverse channels for this kind of education would 
not be diverted from the subject, rather, I would contemplate, a 
more lavish expenditure upon them. 
It appears to me that this utilisation of existing endowed 
institutions would be the simplest and the right method of pro- 
cedure. When I look back on the history of our University, and 
remember that the noble institution we have at the present day 
took origin from the town, the Town’s College, and from supplying 
