74 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as the aim and object of forest management, and, in addition, we 

 hoped that by improving the forests on the liills the water supply 

 for irrigation would be better regulated, that inundations and the 

 silting up of rivers would be diminished, and the like. At a later 

 period experience taught us that in certain parts of India, the 

 sufferings caused by drought and famine might be somewhat 

 mitigated by increasing the production of cattle fodder in the 

 forests. And within the last few months it has been established 

 beyond doubt, that in the Central Provinces the protection of the 

 forests has already had an appreciable influence upon the rainfall. 

 This had long been hoped for by enthusiastic foresters in India, 

 but there was no proof for it. This proof has now been obtained, 

 and I may add that I owe this most important information to 

 the highest living authority on the subject, — to my friend, H. F. 

 Blanford, the Meteorological Reporter to the Government of 

 India. Deficient rainfall means famine in India, and we may 

 therefoi'e hope that the improvement of forests on a sufficiently 

 large scale in certain parts of the country will to some extent 

 tend to diminish the risk of drought and famine. 



You will readily understand that with these important interests 

 at stake, every effort ought to be made to steadily improve the pro- 

 fessional training of the forest officers sent out to India from Great 

 Britain. I shall not enter further into this subject, which, though 

 of paramount importance to India, is not of such special interest for 

 the members of your Society. But what I desire to say is this, that 

 the requirements of w^ood-managei'S and forestei-s in Scotland are 

 entirely difiei-ent from the requirements of Indian forest officers. 

 It does not follow that in special cases foresters, who in Scotland 

 have learnt their profession in the empirical manner hitherto 

 customary, could not work their way up to the higher ranks of the 

 Indian forest service. There have been many instances in India 

 which show that iinder the guidance of good officers, and other- 

 wise under favourable circumstances, men can make up, by means 

 of industrious study, and of steady hard work, for their deficient 

 professional education at the outset. Indeed, as explained to you 

 in Colonel Bailey's excellent paper on the Indian Forest School, to 

 which I have already adverted, the bulk of the work in the first 

 organisation of Indian forest business was successfully accomplished 

 by men who had not received any si)ecial professional training. 

 This, however, was in the beginning, when forest work in India 

 had more of an administrative than of a professional character. 



