ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, AUGUST 4, 1891. 169 
of forestry is now recognised in the country, and it is unneces- 
sary nowadays to reiterate arguments in support of what is 
an accepted belief. What we have now to do is to induce those 
whose interest it is to encourage and foster good forestry to give 
practical support to the schemes by which alone it is possible to 
secure it. Circumstances have in a measure settled the lines 
upon which we must work, and the drift of events has cleared 
away many of the difficulties which up to a comparatively recent 
period beset the question of procedure. I think I shall carry you 
with me when I say that we must utilise, so far as may be possible, 
existing institutions for forestry teaching, and that our endeavour 
should be to graft any scheme of teaching we may consider 
adequate upon establishments already engaged in or adapted to 
cognate work, And this being so, I will go further and say that, 
so far as Scotland is concerned, there is now no doubt but that 
Edinburgh must be the seat for the first foundation on enduring 
lines of forestry teaching. Schemes for the creation of a forest 
school in a district more surrounded by forest land than is Edin- 
burgh are very inviting on paper, but the carrying out of any 
one such as has been proposed would involve a maximum of cost ; 
and it is open, I think, to question whether the special advantages 
claimed for a.school in such a site would compensate for the great 
additional outlay that would be incurred compared with that 
required by an adequate scheme in a university town such as 
Edinburgh. What we have to aim at in our scheme of forestry 
education is the inculcation of the scientific principles underlying 
forestry practice, illustrated by reference to practical operations. 
In a country such as ours, without large State forests, it is not 
possible to contemplate, in the meantime at least, a system of 
official practical training such as is compulsory on the State 
forester on the continent of Europe. For practical experience our 
men, of whatever class, must, as now, undergo apprenticeship to, 
or work with, men capable of instructing them in their art. But 
what we want to do is to raise the practice of forestry every where 
from the position of empirical routine, to have it practised as a 
science as well as an art. 
In connection with our aim, it is necessary even now to 
emphasise the point, that in any complete scheme of forestry 
education there are two groups of men to be provided for, for 
their confusion has led to frequent misconception on the part of 
those professing interest in forestry. 
