-lOG TUANSACTIOXS OF KOYAL SCOTTISH ARBOUICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



During this time no pay is given — it is virtually an apprentice- 

 sliip that is being served. At the end, then, of seven yeax'S of 

 training, provided all examinations have been successfully over- 

 come, the young forester is allowed to accept the lowest post in 

 the service — namely, that of forest assessor. In this position he 

 remains for a longer or shorter period, usually seven to ten years, 

 and receives j£70 to £dO a-year of salary. Afterwards he rises 

 gradually to the higher offices in the service, receiving in the end 

 £.300 to £400 a-year, with house and firewood. 



1 have thus briefly sketched the career of a Bavarian forest 

 officer, but it is pi^actically the same in all continental countries 

 with a forest service. 



Under these forest officers there are overseers who receive their 

 education at special forest schools located in important forest 

 centres. Of course the theoretical training -which these men 

 receive is mox'e elementary than that of the forest officers, nor can 

 they hope to rise to the higher grades of the service. 



Then, still further down the social scale, come the ordinary 

 forest workmen, from whom no education is demanded, and who, 

 for the most part, perform their work by contract. 



As is well known, the Government of India has modelled its 

 forest department on exactly the lines which have been followed 

 on the continent of Europe. In an article entitled " The Progress 

 of Forestry in India," Sir Dietrich Brandis says, — " In future it 

 will be necessary to maintain an intimate connection between 

 forest administi'ation in India and in those countries of Europe 

 where scientific forestry is based upon the experience of centuries. 

 Climate and the species of trees are different in India, but the 

 jirinciples upon which systematic forestry is based are the same 

 in all countries, and the aim in future must be, as it has been in 

 the past, to build the system of forestry in India not upon the 

 ideas and theories of individual men, but upon the results which 

 long experience has furnished in those countries in Europe where 

 scientific foresti-y is oldest and best understood." 



The splendid results obtainable under a proper system of forest 

 administration may be well seen in the case of the Indian State 

 forests,' where the average annual net revenue has steadily risen 

 since the Government took the matter in hand in 18G4, until it 

 is now nearly four times as much as it was twenty-five years ago. 



It is easy to see that if Biitain had had large areas of state 

 forests managed by men who had received a thorough scientific 



