THE SOCIETY S JUBILEE DINNER. 45 



They had been waiting for, and talking and dreaming about, a 

 forest school for Scotland for the past fifty years. They seemed to 

 have made rather slow progress, and he feared that infirmity of 

 purpose had been a cause of this failure to realise their dreams. 

 Government had been approached time and again — and he did 

 not want by any means to throw cold water on this course — 

 but surely the Society could do something for themselves. 

 Was it not possible for them to signalise the fiftieth year of their 

 existence by inaugurating a scheme for the formation of a Joint 

 Stock Company to start and equip a Forest School ? Surely they 

 had as many public-spirited gentlemen in Scotland as would 

 take up shares, even though they could not promise them any 

 great dividend. He gave that suggestion, which he thought 

 was worthy the consideration of every member of the Society. 



Mr Thomson, in reply, said he remembered well when in 1855 

 he became a member of the Society. He had been a member 

 since that time, and he looked with pride and pleasure at the 

 progress the Society had made. Although his heart was sad 

 when he looked back and thought of those who were with him 

 forty-nine years ago, still, he could assure them, his heart 

 rejoiced to think that the Society was flourishing in such a 

 way as it was doing. As long as they had such an able 

 President, such an indefatigable Secretary, and such a wise and 

 thoughtful Council, the Society was bound to go on prospering 

 and to prosper. Especially did he thank the Society for having 

 made him and others Honorary Members. It was a pleasure 

 to be an ordinary member of the Society, and they had 

 enhanced that pleasure a hundred-fold by making him and 

 others honorary members of the Society. 



Mr D. P. Laird, in proposing the toast of " The Landed 

 Interest," said that going round the country as he did, and 

 associating a good deal with men connected with the land, he 

 was of opinion that they in Scotland ought to be exceedingly 

 proud of their landlords. He was certain that in every department 

 of life the landlords did their duty well. Let them trust that they 

 had got round all the difficulties that beset them, and with the 

 combination of agriculture and arboriculture, let them hope that 

 the landed interest would, in the future, be rosy in the extreme. 



Sir Kenneth J. Mackenzie, Bart, of Gairloch, with whose 

 name the toast was coupled, replied. He said that as far as his 

 own personal experience went, the state of the landed interest in 



