CONFERENCE ON FORESTRY EDUCATION. 59 



Forestry discussed from two points of view. There was the 

 necessity for a young forester learning actually what the trees 

 were with which he was dealing. They were living things, and 

 subject to variation, according to the treatment he gave them. 

 This involved a certain amount of laboratory work, as well as 

 lectures. The statement that the lecture was a repetition from a 

 book was not generally applicable. The lecturer could bring 

 specimens to the table, and show a piece of timber which had 

 been properly grown, and one that had not. In the laboratory, 

 with the aid of the microscope and proper materials, the plant 

 could be dissected, and its structure properly explained. He 

 thought the degree would stimulate young men to obtain the 

 B.Sc, and then the Doctorate. He rather thought one hundred 

 and twenty lectures in three or four months was a little more 

 than a student could assimilate. 



Dr Nisbet said he was judging by the keenness of the young 

 foresters, and he did not think that two lectures a day for twelve 

 weeks would be too much either for the lecturer or for the 

 student. 



Mr William Forbes, Glasgow, said he quite agreed with what 

 Mr Gillanders said about the enthusiasm of the generality of 

 young foresters falling off very much. 



Mr C. S. France, Aberdeen, said he agreed with Mr Gamble 

 as to combining both the scientific and the practical training. 

 The difficulty was the difficulty of co-ordinating these two things, 

 so that the scientific training could be carried on simultaneously 

 with a good practical training. There was nothing could bring 

 that about so much as the acquisition of a sufficient area, whereby 

 all the different parts of forestry could be illustrated. There was 

 the arboricultural aspect of forestry, and the sylvicultural aspect 

 of forestry. Woods being mostly under private ownership, they 

 could not be managed on sylvicultural lines. There was a diffi- 

 culty in foresters getting sylvicultural education. They could not 

 get it on the private properties where they were brought up. As 

 to the arboricultural aspect, most of them knew how to grow a 

 tree. But with regard to the rearing of woods, obtaining the 

 largest amount of timber in the shortest time, that was a matter 

 which could only be properly acquired by having experience in a 

 demonstration area. He hoped the Society would continue to 

 press on the necessity of doing everything in their power to 

 acquire a certain amount of land. He would not object so much 



