THE PROPOSED SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 65 



II. The Proposed School of Forestry. By Sir Dietrich Brandis, 

 K.C.S.I., Bonn, Germany. 



(Read at the Annual General Meeting of the Society, on the 26th of July 1887.) 



My friend, Dr Hugh Cleghorn, your late President, has done 

 me the great honour of suggesting that I shoukl deliver an address 

 to the members of the Boyal Scottish Arboricultural Society at this 

 year's annual meeting. Unfortunately, I am unable to be present, 

 and I therefore thankfully avail myself of my friend's offer, to 

 read at the meeting a few words which I desire to address to the 

 Society. First of all, I wish to express the great satisfaction 

 "which my position as an honorary member of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society affords me. This great honour was conferred 

 upon me fifteen years ago, while I was holding the position of 

 Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India. At 

 that time it was very gratifying, and I may truly say, it was a 

 source of great comfoi"t, under circumstances which were unusually 

 difficult and by no means always pleasant, to find that my labours 

 in the cause of Forestry were appreciated and recognised by the 

 foresters of Scotland, 



I have said that the circumstances under which I worked in 

 India were difficult. You are all aware that India has a civilisa- 

 tion much older than the greater part of Europe ; that, while our 

 ancestors, two thousand years ago, were leading a roaming life in 

 the woods, living upon the game they caught, without fields and 

 fixed habitations, a large portion of India was and had long been 

 an open, highly cultivated country, governed by powerful kings, . 

 with large cities, temples, and palaces, the inhabitants of which 

 had an elaborate system of laws, a system of religion, and a 

 literature rich in poetry. You are also aware that the civilisation 

 of the West, although it commenced at a much later period, has 

 in most respects overtaken and far outrun the ancient civilisation 

 of the East. 



When, about thirty years ago, we commenced to take action, in 

 a methodical manner, to place the management of forests in India 

 upon a satisfactory footing, we were confronted with difficulties of 

 a peculiar kind. You have all been accustomed in Scotland, 

 from your early youth, to regard the proprietary rights in waste 

 and forest to be as clear and settled as the proprietary rights in 



VOL. XII., PART I. E 



