184 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
practical knowledge they possess without any of the advantages 
afforded by a previous study of the principles evolved by experience 
in countries where systematic forest management has been long 
practised. 
But, in spite of these disadvantages, Scotland can show numerous 
well-managed forest estates—such, for example, as those of the 
Duke of Athole, of the Earls of Mansfield and Seafield, of Lord 
Lovat, and of other proprietors who might be mentioned ; and it 
is universally admitted that the art of raising nursery plants, of 
establishing plantations, and of rearing park trees is here carried out 
with a success unsurpassed by the foresters of any other country. 
Our Forest Class has thus the great advantage that excellent practical 
instruction in work of this kind can conveniently be given to it. 
It is impossible to mention the Duke of Athole’s forests without 
alluding to the loss we have recently sustained by the death of Mr 
John Macgregor, a representative Scottish forester, who has done 
much to forward the progress of Forestry in this country, and whose 
well-known figure will be missed from among us for many a year 
to come. 
But I believe I am justified in saying that certain branches of 
the science have unavoidably received less attention than is desir- 
able. I allude principally to regeneration by natural means (2.e., 
felling in such a manner that the old trees may be caused to 
produce. their successors in the form of self-sown seedlings), and to 
the preparation of working plans or schemes of management, by 
means of which continuity in the system of treatment is secured, 
the forest is made to yield the maximum quantity of the most 
paying kind of produce, and provision is made for the removal of 
a regular annual or other periodical yield ; at the same time the 
owner is enabled to realise the full yield with confidence, and his 
forest is secured against damage by over-felling. 
But if insufficient attention has hitherto been paid to these 
questions, the reason is to be found in the entire absence of means 
of acquiring a sound knowledge of the principles on which they 
should be treated, and of the way in which these principles should 
be put into practice. And here I am afraid I must admit that 
we are placed at a disadvantage, in that we shall find it difficult, if 
not impossible, to give our students practical instruction in forests 
where the principles of scientific Forestry have guided the manage- 
ment for a sufficiently long time to enable us to point to the results 
they lead to. The life of a tree extends over a long period of years, 
