158 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH AKBORICULTU HAL SOCIETY. 



Transactions and the kindly pages of the pi'ess; and to, perchance, 

 elicit the opinions of others, whom I know to be far more at home 

 in the subject than I can possibly be. 



To begin with : I venture to state that it is not general at 

 present throughout the country to discriminate between the young 

 man who desires to become a capable and efficient Forester, and 

 the equally necessary and useful youth who is never likely to be, 

 or desires to be, more than an estate labourer. Don't imagine, 

 gentlemen that I am depreciating the latter, but I conceive the 

 Society has a direct interest in the former. 



The result of the before-mentioned want of discrimination is that 

 young men get somewhat disheartened, and lose the enthusiasm in 

 their work which is necessary to ultimate success in their pro- 

 fession. In many country districts there is no access to libraries, 

 or even much opportunity of an interchange of opinion with fellow- 

 craftsmen. Thus a young man who bas some ambition about him 

 is entirely dependent on the assistance he may obtain from bis 

 superiors — the head forester or his foreman — which, I fear, in 

 many cases is not very willingly given, not deliberately, I dare say, 

 but from inattention. 



Now, I wish to advocate the system adopted by the gardening 

 profession to hold good equally with foresters. When a young 

 man be engaged, let him be engaged for three years certain, at a 

 yearly increasing wage, with the distinct agreement that he, the 

 apprentice, for so he virtually should be, is to receive a regular 

 course of instruction in the different departments, of work carried 

 on on the estate. Let it be understood that, should he not be kept 

 on as a journeyman at the end of his time, his superiors shall use 

 their influence to secure for him a journeyman's situation else- 

 where. Let him be entitled to receive a certificate stating that he 

 has undergone an apprenticeship training. For such an apprentice- 

 ship training I should recommend that, on a large estate, a lad 

 should be employed, during his first year, in the home nursery, so 

 as to make himself familiar with the different varieties of trees — 

 their propagation and general treatment. He would probably thus 

 acquire taste and neatness of work, obedience to orders, general 

 regular habits, and punctuality. 



For the second year's work he should be instructed in the forma- 

 tion and protection of plantations and their management, including 

 fencing, hedges' treatment, and rough carpentering, and, perhaps, 

 road-making and bridging. 



