6o TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to having some old woods that had been mismanaged before. 

 He thought they should be on different grades. He had in his 

 mind at present an estate which was in the market, and which 

 would be admirably suitable, in the vicinity of one of the 

 University towns. 



The Chairman said it was absolutely necessary that the forester, 

 to be a successful forester, must begin at the beginning, and 

 know how to use the axe and spade, and everything else. Before 

 he could become a successful forester, he must have gone through 

 all the stages himself. Was there nothing they could do to help 

 themselves before the Government produced this large forest? 

 They could help themselves in the education of young foresters 

 in this country. If the proprietors would institute a system of 

 bothies, they would get the boys to come at fifteen or sixteen 

 years of age, and they could put them through a two or three 

 years' course under their head forester before going to the 

 lectures. They would then go to the lectures ready to receive 

 the full benefit. As regards the State forest, he would be very 

 much obliged if they would give him the particulars of any 

 place they thought the Government would buy. He had been in 

 communication a good deal on the subject, and he found it was 

 not very easy to please the people with whom the selection lay. 



The Collection of Statistics. 



On the conclusion of the discussion on Forestry Education, 

 Dr Nisbet drew attention to the desirability of collecting useful 

 statistics of British forestry. They wanted statistics of their own. 

 Continental statistics were not of much use here. They required 

 statistics of every description. They wanted co-operation of 

 members in different counties. The moment the Government 

 approached a landowner, he began to think there was something 

 about income tax in it. If the foresters belonging to that 

 Association gave their assistance, they might get out something 

 new that would be a help to forestry in Scotland, and that would 

 be duly recorded in the Transactions. 



On the motion of the Chairman, a vote of thanks was passed 

 to the speakers who had initiated and carried on the discussion, 

 and also to the Perthshire Natural History Society for the use of 

 the lecture-room. 



