124 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees, which forms a skin on the ground. The seed does not get 

 down to the natural soil, and until it does get to the soil it 

 will not make any perceptible growth. It may keep alive for a 

 time, but it very seldom takes root at all. As soon as it gets to 

 the soil it grows quite freely." — " Do you think the want of repro- 

 duction in some of our woodlands is in any way attributable to 

 that 1 " " Not unless the ground has been under a crop of wood 

 for a great length of time. In the natural forests they have been 

 under a crop of wood for many generations." — " In that case it 

 would be better to grub up the old wood and plant fresh woodland 

 in another place ? " " It would be much better." 



" You say that replanting on the same ground does not appear 

 to answer. Do you apply that to planting the same kind of trees 1 " 

 " Yes." — " Would it be different if you were planting chestnuts or 

 oaks after firl" "Quite different, I have seen natural woods 

 that have been under Scots fir, when they were cut away, the birch 

 grew the next year, or a year or two afterwards, where Scots fir 

 would not have grown." — " Do you think that with regard to a fact 

 of that kind there is much to be learned by systematic experiment 1 " 

 " There is, no doubt." — " There is nothing of that kind now estab- 

 lished, is there 1 " " Nothing that I am aware of." — " What 

 is learnt has been learnt hap-hazard from the experience of different 

 men 1 " " Yes ; and when one is going through the country taking 

 notes of any matter of that kind." 



" Do you think that more would be done for forestry by the 

 establishment of a school for teaching young foresters either theory 

 or practice, or by establishing a system of examination by competent 

 men, and giving the men who are employed to examine some kind 

 of position, such as professors ; an endowment, I mean, so that 

 they might go about the country and study the question in a 

 scientific way, and then by means of their examination direct 

 the education of young foresters V "I think the best way would 

 be to have the school; and have them examined there in the 

 schools." — " Do you think there is a sufficient number of foresters 

 employed to maintain a vschool ? " " There is a sufficient number 

 employed if they would be able to pay the fees. As a rule, 

 foresters are not over well paid, and if they had to pay heavy fees 

 for a school, I am afraid they would not be able to do it." — " At 

 the same time a school must be a paying concern if it is to go on. 

 It is a question of demand whether the supply can be maintained, 

 is it not?" '* I should be afraid that the number of pupils would 



