46 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this country at the present time might be described as somewhat 

 decaying. He earnestly trusted, for the sake of agriculture, 

 arboriculture, horticulture, and all the other things which were 

 left in this country, and which made England and Scotland the 

 finest places to live in, that no Government would pile up further 

 burdens on the land of Great Britain. He was always glad 

 every year he went to the Highland and Agricultural Society's 

 show to find that the exhibition was better, and the attendance 

 was larger. That showed, he thought, there was still some faint 

 hope for the landed interest. The progress which the Arbori- 

 cultural Society was making in its membership and in its objects 

 also gave them hope that the landed interest in this country was 

 not to be altogether wiped out. 



Mr J. W. M'Hattie, City Gardener, Edinburgh, in pro- 

 posing " Agricultural Colleges," said they had heard what Dr 

 Somerville had said regarding the methods of their forefathers 

 in arboriculture. That was the rule of thumb. They were very 

 much indebted indeed to their colleges for the light they had 

 given on many points. During the last fifty years the Royal 

 Scottish Arboricultural Society had made very great progress 

 indeed. That, to a great extent, he attributed to the colleges. 

 They had eight Agricultural Colleges in England and three in 

 Scotland; and in Ireland a very great step had been undertaken 

 by the Government in fostering agriculture and arboriculture 

 there. 



Councillor Macpherson, one of the Governors of the East of 

 Scotland College of Agriculture, who responded, said that the 

 Agricultural Colleges of Scotland had a comparatively short 

 history, but that history was a record of continual development 

 and success. The first to be established was the West of 

 Scotland College, which was founded in 1899, and took over the 

 Agricultural Department of the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College, and the Kilmarnock Dairy School. The 

 success of that College was such that it was considered desirable 

 to establish in the east a college on similar lines. In Edinburgh 

 there was already existing the Chair of Agriculture and Rural 

 Economy, the oldest centre of advanced agricultural training in 

 the kingdom, and the scheme was arranged to make the 

 utmost possible use of that valuable asset, and also of the School 

 of Rural Economy, whose progress had been hindered through 

 inadequate financial support. Eleven County Councils and the 



