PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 3 



Minister of Agriculture, urging him to acquire and maintain a 

 small State Forest which might serve the following, among other, 

 objects, viz. : — 



Firstly. To afford practical proof as to the sylvicultural methods 

 best adapted to our natural conditions of soil and climate, 

 and as to the profits they may be expected to result in. 



Secondly. To provide a much needed object-lesson for the 

 guidance of landowners and foresters. 



Thirdly. To provide a practical training ground for students, in 

 the absence of which theoretical instruction is ineffectual. 



Fourthly. To provide a field of research for the compilation of 

 forest statistics relating to our own country. 



Unfortunately, the Minister does not see his way at present to 

 do what we ask. 



There is, perhaps, no science for the effective teaching of which 

 practical demonstration is more essential than that of forestry. 

 It is wholly impossible to convey a correct idea of many of the 

 most important sylvicultural processes by the use of mere words 

 and diagrams; and for instructional purposes it is absolutely 

 necessary to have convenient access to woods which have been 

 managed continuously, during a long series of years, in accord- 

 ance with proper principles. This forms one reason why we have 

 urged on the Government the necessity of providing a State 

 foi'est; for the difficulties in way of continuously regular manage- 

 ment on private estates is obvious. To all the great foreign 

 Schools of Forestry are attached woods which are placed under 

 the control of the director of the school, who takes care that all 

 work is so arranged as to fall in with instructional requirements. 

 Though neighbouring proprietors have most kindly made us 

 welcome visitors to their estates, the classes at Edinburgh have 

 not had the advantage of studying woods which have been 

 systematically managed for a sufficiently long time, and the 

 instruction given has unavoidably suffered in consequence. 



We have not hitherto felt the want of a full supply of home- 

 grown building timber, because we can readily obtain, almost at 

 our doors, any amount of foreign pine and fir of better quality 

 than the average produce of our own sparsely-stocked woods ; 

 and the price we pay for it is certainly low. But there is no 

 doubt that, while the world's consumption of timber, as indeed of 

 all or most other commodities, is increasing at a rapid rate, the 



