BRITISH FORESTRY AND ITS FUTURE PROSPECTS. 173 



There is only one educational institution in the British Isles 

 where thorough instruction in Forestry can be obtained at 

 present, and that is the Engineering College of Coopers Hill, 

 in Surrey, founded and maintained at the sole expense of the 

 Government of India. Yet the lads trained there for the Indian 

 Forest Service have still to go to the Continent for completion 

 of their studies by practical training in Sylviculture and Forest 

 Management. Unfortunately, however, a three years' curriculum 

 and rather a heavy cost place this well-organised course of instruc- 

 tion entirely beyond the reach of many of those who might wish 

 to study Forestry, and who would be much benefited by doing 

 so. Under these circumstances, it seems only reasonable to ex- 

 pect the State to provide either a National School of Forestry, or 

 else what shall be acknowledged as a thorough and yet a cheap 

 course of instruction in Forestry at some of the universities and 

 agricultural colleges, or rather technical schools, where most 

 of those receive part of their education, who, later on, as agents 

 and factors, are closely connected with the management of landed 

 estates. And it is, perhaps, only by organising something of 

 the same sort at Oxford and Cambridge that the heirs to large 

 landed estates can be introduced to a knowledge that would be 

 of practical use to them. To meet the national requirements, 

 it is just as essential that the instruction for both of these 

 classes should be cheap and easily obtainable, as that it should 

 be thorough ; and this can only be hoped for with liberal aid 

 given by the State. Much more should also be done than has 

 hitherto been the case for the instruction of practical men per- 

 forming the duties of woodreeves and foresters, as this would 

 naturally tend to raise in every way the status of this most 

 deserving class of hard working and poorly paid men. With a 

 more thorough training, these men would probably soon obtain 

 a higher rate of wage than at present. They would not only 

 deserve it, but landowners would find it profitable to employ a 

 better trained class of woodreeves. 



The course of lectures in Forestry instituted at Edinburgh 

 University in 1889, commenced by Dr Somerville and now so 

 ably continued by Colonel Bailey, the instruction given by the 

 Professor of Agriculture and Forestry at the Durham College of 

 Science in Newcastle, and the evening classes at the Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, — all three State-aided, — are only initial 

 steps in the pi'oper direction. On the Continent of Europe, 



VOL. XVI. PART II. N 



