DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BRITISH FORESTRY. 11 



instruction, and, as above indicated, confining our attention for 

 financial reasons to Crown forests so far as regards England, we 

 have inspected the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and the 

 Alice Holt Woods and Bere Forest in Hampshire, as well as 

 woods in the counties of Fife, Peebles, Perth, Inverness, and 

 Moray. Although covering an area somewhat smaller than 

 that indicated above as the minimum desirable, we consider that 

 the Alice Holt Woods could be more readily brought into good, 

 •working order, and could be made to serve as a useful object- 

 lesson at an earlier date, than any of the other woods belonging 

 to the Crown ; and we accordingly recommend that they should 

 be made available as soon as possible, to serve as a demonstration 

 area. As regards a locality in Scotland, we are not at present in 

 a position to make any specific recommendation. 



Agricultural Colleges. 



24. With regard to the training of young men who propose to 

 take up land agency as a profession, and who cannot afibrd. to 

 spend three years at a university, we consider that facilities for 

 imparting sound knowledge of the elements of forestry should be 

 provided at the various colleges supplying instruction in agri- 

 culture in Great Britain. Inasmuch as land-agents are entrusted 

 with the management of large estates, which usually comprise a 

 certain area under wood, it is clearly requisite that they should 

 know how to turn that area, as well as the land iinder other 

 crops, to the best account. We have it in evidence, however, 

 that comparatively few land-agents possess a competent know- 

 ledge of forestry. Instruction in the elements of forestry 

 should therefore form part of the regular curriculum at all such 

 colleges ; and we suggest that this subject should receive 

 greater prominence at such institutions, in order that students 

 may qualify themselves to undertake the efficient supervision of 

 what is an important, and should be a profitable, part of many 

 estates. 



Training of Foresters a7id Woodmen. 



25. For working foresters or woodmen, whose prospective 

 salaries do not at present justify their attending for any length 

 of time at the universities or colleges, a practical training in the 

 woods naturally forms the best basis of instruction, and for this 

 the State demonstration areas already recommended offer the 



