DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BRITISH FORESTRY 7 



to the statements supplied by the Post Office as to the unsuit- 

 ability of home-grown pine for telegraph poles. 



Education. 



13. That the yield of our woodlands can be materially improved 

 admits of no doubt, and the evidence before us unanimously 

 favours immediate and effective provision for bringing system- 

 atised instruction within the reach of owners, agents, foresters, 

 and woodmen. This has been on all sides emphasised as the first 

 requisite in any project for the improvement of forestry, and 

 consequently stands out as the cardinal point of our recommenda- 

 tions. 



University Education. 



14. It is clear that the same class of instruction is not suitable 

 for, and will not commend itself to, all the different grades of 

 persons who have to deal, in some capacity or other, with 

 woodlands. The natural centres for the instruction in forestry of 

 the future owners and agents, under present conditions, are the 

 universities and provincial colleges. Here additional facilities 

 for theoretical instruction and practical demonstration are 

 required. Certain witnesses examined before the Select Com- 

 mittee in 1885-87 expressed the opinion that forestry instruction 

 might consist of special lectures bearing on tree-growth, to be 

 given by Professors of Chemistry, Botany, Geology, or Agriculture. 

 Even now, if one may judge by what sometimes passes under the 

 name of forestry instruction, this idea is not altogether extinct. 

 It cannot be too strongly emphasised that such instruction alone 

 is not forestry, but only the necessary foundation on which the 

 pupil grafts the study of forestry proper, that is to say, the 

 profitable production of trees grown in masses. We consider 

 that the scope and character of the instruction given at Edinburgh 

 University, which we visited, is the least that should be aimed 

 at, though it might, with advantage, be carried considerably 

 further, and that better facilities should be provided. Similar 

 courses should be provided at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as 

 in all the agricultural colleges, and colleges with agricultural 

 departments, which are subsidised by the Board of Agriculture or 

 by the Scotch Education Department. Our attention has been 

 directed to recent developments in the United States of America, 

 where forestry instruction, both in the lecture-room and the 

 woodf, has been introduced into many of the universities and 



