FORESTRY IN BRITAIN. 55 
V. Forestry in Britain: An Address to the Biological Section of 
the British Association, delivered at the Oxford Meeting, 
1894. By Professor I. Baytey Batrour, M.A., M.D., 
F.R.S., President of the Section. 
After referring to the death of Dr Romanes, and to the constitu- 
tion of the Biological Section, Professor Balfour said,— 
In selecting the special topic upon which I am to address you, 
I have followed the lead of those of my predecessors in this chair 
who have used the opportunity to discuss a practical subject. 
Forestry, about which I purpose to speak, is a branch of applied 
science to which, in this country, but little attention has been 
given by any class of the community. By scientific men it has 
been practically ignored. Yet it is a division of Rural Economy 
which ought to be the basis of a large national industry. 
There are no intrinsic circumstances in the country to prevent 
our growing trees as a profitable crop for timber as well as our 
neighbours. On the contrary, Great Britain is specially well 
adapted for tree-growing. We have woodlands of fine trees, grown 
after traditional methods, abundant in many districts. The beauty 
of an English landscape lies in its trees and its pastures. Nowhere 
in the world, probably, are to be found finer specimens of tree- 
growth. As arboriculturists we are unrivalled. But the growing 
of trees for effect and in plantations is a very different matter from 
their cultivation on scientific principles, for the purpose of yielding 
profitable crops. This is sylviculture. The guiding lines of the 
two methods of culture are by no means the same—nay, they may 
be opposed ; and it is the.sylvicultural aspect of the science of 
forestry which has hitherto been neglected in this country. The 
recognition of this is no new thing. But within recent years it 
has attracted considerable public attention, as the importance of 
wood cultivation in our national life has been more realised ; and 
although various proposals have been put forward, and some little 
effort made for the purpose of remedying the admittedly unsatis- 
factory state of forestry practice, there has been so far no great 
result. I attribute this in great measure to the apathy of scientific 
men, especially botanists, and I am convinced that until they 
devote attention to forestry, the great issues involved in it will not 
be rightly appreciated in this country. 
It is not the first time the subject has been before this Section. 
I find that in 1885, at the Aberdeen meeting, a committee was 
