262 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



XX. The International Congress of Sylviculture. 

 By J. S. Gamble, CLE., M.A., F.R.S. 



This Congress was one of the first of the long series of Inter- 

 national Congresses which took place at the Great Exhibition, and 

 it is, it is hoped, to be the first of a long series of important Forest 

 Congresses to be held at short intervals in the future. It opened 

 on the 4th June, in the Congress Palace, close to the Alma 

 Bridge. There were delegates present representing most of the 

 countries of the world, but, naturally, the great majority of those 

 who followed the discussions were French, mostly gentlemen 

 connected with the Forest Service. So far as is known, England 

 was represented only by Mr Stafford-Howard, Commissioner of 

 Woods and Forests, and India by Dr Schlich and Messrs Fisher 

 and Gamble, all old Indian forest officers. Messrs Cadell, Moir, 

 Hearle and Carr were also present to represent the Indian Forest 

 Service unofficially. 



The proceedings of the Congress opened with an introductory 

 speech by M. Jean Dupuy, the Minister of Agriculture. He 

 began with a welcome to the foreign members, and then proceeded 

 to discuss the position of the Exhibition as " not only a marvellous 

 spectacle offered to the world, but also presenting, for all civilised 

 people, a powerful interest as being the resume - , the synthesis, 

 the relief map, so to speak, of human progress." He then pro- 

 ceeded to show how Sylviculture, so important in the economy of 

 nations, could not fail to take a place, a great and honourable 

 place, in the Exhibition. The Minister was followed by the 

 Director-General of Forests, who, after thanking him for presid- 

 ing and opening the Congress, pointed out the importance of an 

 international understanding on the subject, so as to take stock of 

 the forest resources of the world, in view of the probable wood 

 famine which, before long, may be expected to be a serious 

 difficulty. 



These preliminaries were followed by what was the most 

 important paper read before the Congress, that by M. Me'lard, 

 Inspector of Forests, on the insufficiency of the supply of building 

 timber in the world. In an able discourse, he pointed out that 

 the supply of such timber was already diminishing, that most 

 countries actually at the present day were importing more timber 

 than they exported, and that in those few countries where the 



