190 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to glance at sotnc of the more prominent topics of the day in con- 

 nection with Forestry, and particularly those likely to interest 

 the members of this Society, 



Looking back to the year 1854, when our Society first saw 

 the light, we may say that systematic Forestry, as now undoi-- 

 stood, was then in its infancy. Our esteemed ex-President, Dr 

 Cleghorn, was, at the same period, engaged in evolving, in the 

 midst of his official avocations, that great scheme of Forest 

 Conservancy, wliich he began to put into execution in 1856 

 in the Madras Presidency. A few years later, Dr Cleghorn took 

 an active pai't, in association with Sir Dietrich Brandis, in estab- 

 lishing in the various Presidencies that system of forest manage- 

 ment which is now an important feature of the rural economy 

 of the Government of India, and full of ])romise in the future 

 development of that magnificent countiy. Forestry, in a 

 practical form, was then unheard of in any of the nume- 

 rous Colonies and Dependencies of the British Empire, in 

 all of which it is now receiving more or less attention, and 

 furnishes a subject for much speculation and discussion by 

 those who are interested in the prosperity of our Colonies, 

 as to the best methods for afforesting the extensive treeless 

 wastes and arid tracts, which are too common a feature in 

 many of them. At the same date, comparatively little had been 

 done in Britain to improve the methods of Forestry adopted by 

 our forefathers a couple of centuries ago, when first they began to 

 utilise waste lands, by covering them with forest trees. The systems 

 they practised in forming their woodlands, and in sheltering their 

 fields and ornamenting their domains with plantations of trees 

 and shrubs, were still, to a great extent, slavishly followed. 

 Several generations of tree-planters had succeeded each othei-, 

 working on almost identical lines ; and although, judged by more 

 modern experience, their ideas might be somewhat crude, they were 

 fairly successful in rearing beautiful plantations for the adornment 

 of the landscape, and thrifty woods for sheltering many a bleak 

 hillside. Is there much wonder then, that, before the advent of 

 I'ailways arid the numerous appliances of modern civilisation with 

 which we are now so familial", there was little disposition to strike 

 out into new and imj)roved methods, or that the ordinary forester 

 did not care to trouble himself about aught but what his father 

 liad practised before him 1 However, the time came when a few 

 ardent and intelligent foresters clearly saw, that if their profession 



