KEPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 109 



Qualities and uses of cliief indigenous timbers ; processes of pre- 

 serving timber ; (8.) Management of nurseries; seed sowing; (9.) 

 Collection of forest produce ; (10.) Manufacture of tar and charcoal ; 

 (11.) Insects injurious to trees; preservation of birds wbich prey 

 upon them, drawing a distinction between birds whicb are bene- 

 ficial and those which are destructive to trees. That is practical 

 forestry." — " What is the mode of conducting the examination in 

 forestry?" "In the first place, written questions are settled by 

 members of the Committee a few days before the candidates are 

 asked to come up to Edinburgh. Those questions are submitted to 

 the candidates when they come to the Society's Chambers, and 

 they are allowed three hours to answer them. Then the oral 

 examination takes place the day after. That occupies two or three 

 hours, the candidates being examined first in practical forestry, 

 and if they fail in that, they are not examined further." 



"The Society also gives premiums for approved reports'?" 

 " Yes." — " Is that competition confined to foresters, or is it open 1 " 

 "It is open." — "It is open to land agents or to anybody ? " "Yes, 

 we have had land agents and land agents' clerks who come up." — 

 " Do you think that forestry ought to be connected with the science 

 of agriculture, as a part of agriculture, rather than of any otlaer 

 science"?" "Yes, it would be more natural to combine them." — 

 " What is the class of men who come up to these Forestry examina- 

 tions of the Highland and Agricultural Society 1 " " They are 

 assistant foresters generally, and land agents and their clerks." — 

 " Do any actual working foresters, men who absolutely are working 

 in the woods, come up for examination 1 " " No." — " You have 

 no labourers 1" " They are young men who have it in view to be- 

 come foresters who come up, thinking that the certificate of forestry 

 from the Highland and Agricultural Society would enable them to 

 obtain a situation." — " Most of them have learned what they know 

 by practical work more than by study 1 " " By practical work en- 

 tirely. They are working men, and know very little about 

 scientific matters." — " They have not learned much by reading V 

 " No, they are doing so now, but then it is very difficult for them 

 to learn by reading, because there is no text-book worth reading." 

 — " How long have these examinations been instituted?" "I am 

 not very sure. They have been in existence for about ten years, 

 but I could not say exactly." — "Are they attended tolerably well 

 every year?" "Not very well. We have never had more than 

 four candidates at one examination." 



