ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, AUGUST 4, 1891. 171 
that the secretary will, at a later period of this meeting, give you 
some account of what has been done, and what has to be done, in 
this matter, and I shall not, therefore, say more regarding it now. 
I would only point out the considerable sum already promised 
gives us hope of ultimate success. It is well that it should be 
known that the grant of £100 by the Board of Agriculture to the 
university lecturer during the past two years, has been only a 
temporary one, pending the result of our own efforts and the 
action of the Universities Commissioners, Whatever the latter 
may be, it seems to me that what we have already done affords 
evidence of the interest that is taken in forestry here, and should 
convince the Board of Agriculture that our local effort is deservy- 
ing of further and greater support from it. With the foundation 
of a chair of forestry in the university, and the institution of 
lectureships on plant-pathology and on plant-physiology, desired 
by the university as auxiliary to the chair of botany, we should 
have in Edinburgh a fairly efficient equipment for teaching the 
principles of forestry to those desirous of an university education. 
But this university teaching does not give us all we want. 
There is still the question of instruction for practical foresters, and 
in considering how this is to be secured, we are confronted with 
a difficulty which has always appeared an obstacle in the way of 
their education—that, namely, of the maintenance of the forester 
during the period of instruction, apart altogether from the cost of 
the education itself. No doubt, were such education for foresters 
available, there would be found employers who would consider the 
sum needed to educate and support their foresters an investment 
good enough to justify them in making it, and large-minded bene- 
factors might establish bursaries, through which foresters might be 
enabled to gain the advantage of the instruction offered to them. 
But these possibilities are not sufficient basis for the building up 
of a regular system of forestry teaching, and I am justified, I think, 
in saying that no scheme of education for practical foresters can 
hope for success unless it ensures at the same time that the 
forester shall be able to have sufficient for his support during the 
time of pupilage. Can this be accomplished in Edinburgh? I 
believe it to be possible by utilising the Royal Botanic Garden, 
and I shall now describe a scheme I have submitted to my Depart- 
ment, by which the difficulties referred to may be overcome. I 
start with the assumption that the subjects of elementary 
scentific education, with which it is desirable every practical 
