42 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a very large number of the members of the Arboricultural Society 

 were members of the Highland and Agricultural Society. On 

 behalf of that Society, he might say that anything they could 

 do to help the Arboricultural Society in the work it had in hand 

 would be willingly and gladly done. He was not in a position 

 of authority now, but at the same time he thought he knew 

 enough of the feelings of his colleagues on the directorate to 

 assure them that what he said was the truth. The work of the 

 Arboricultural Society was practically the same as that under- 

 taken by the Highland Society. After all, the cultivation of 

 trees was as much a part of agriculture as the cultivation of any 

 kind of crop, because if they thought of the matter properly, in 

 his opinion, they would not only look upon trees as one of the 

 ornaments of the land, but as a valuable product of the earth, 

 which had got to be cultivated to the best commercial advantage. 

 If it could not be done in that way, it really would not be done at 

 all, not at any rate in the way in which it ought to be done. 

 While agriculture was at rather a bad time just now, he rejoiced 

 that the experience of arboriculturists had been rather different. 

 He believed it was the case that the number of persons who 

 took an interest in arboriculture now was twenty for one who did 

 so twenty years ago. 



Mr Davidson, of the English Arboricultural Society, said that 

 he was just recovering from a long illness, and perhaps he 

 should not have undertaken the duty of representing the English 

 Arboricultural Society. But, in the circumstances, and from his 

 long connection with the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 

 he did not like this opportunity to pass. His coming there had 

 been a pleasure, and yet that pleasure was somewhat marred by 

 the absence of many whose faces were very familiar to him 

 during the early years of the Society. They were now gone to 

 reap their reward. Well, the English Arboricultural Society had 

 made considerable progress. He thought it commenced about 

 twenty-two years ago with about six members, and now they 

 numbered over seven hundred. At the same time, it must be 

 admitted that the progress of that Society was very largely due 

 to the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, because the 

 methods, the rules, and everything connected with this Society 

 were the guiding star of the English Society. Although the 

 Society which he represented might be at the elementary stage, 

 still it was exercising a quiet influence on the minds of proprietors 



