INTRODUCTION TO COURSE OF FORESTRY LECTURES. 185 
and the effects of a system of management cannot be fully studied 
in any forest until that system has been in force throughout at least 
one life-period of the principal species of which the forest is com- 
posed. As a rule, it is only in forests owned by the State that 
studies of this kind can be carried on to the best advantage, for 
such forests alone are free from liability to deviation from the plan 
of management, due either to the varying fortunes of a succession 
of owners, or to changes of policy which each owner in his turn has 
full power to introduce. 
The only important State forests in the British Isles are situated 
in the south of England. I understand that 800 acres of Windsor 
Forest have recently been made over for management to the 
authorities of the Indian College at Cooper’s Hill, and this tract 
will, in course of time, become a most valuable field of instruction ; 
but I believe that nothing has yet been done towards framing 
working plans for the New Forest or the Forest of Dean. 
Unfortunately all of these forests lie at such a distance from 
Edinburgh that I fear we cannot avail ourselves of them very 
often, The students of the Indian College spend one college term 
in visiting and studying, under Sir Dietrich Brandis, selected State 
forests in Germany ; but I am afraid such distant excursions are 
beyond our reach, and we must rely for practical instruction on 
such woodlands, comparatively near at hand, as the courtesy of their 
owners and foresters may enable us to visit. It may eventually 
be possible to effect some arrangement similar to that recently made 
at Cooper’s Hill, and to place some conveniently situated woods at 
the disposal of the University Professor for the instruction of the 
students in Sylviculture and other branches of Forestry ; but this 
cannot be done at present. 
I will now bring these introductory remarks to a close; but 
before proceeding to enter upon the detailed study of my subject, 
I will indicate what the Course would have been had I been able 
to commence it in October. I should then have taken up the 
several branches in the following order, viz. :— 
1. Utility of Forests. 
2. Sylviculture, or the Culture of Trees when growing together 
and forming Woods or Forests. 
3. Mensuration. 
. Valuation of Woods. 
5. Working Plans or Schemes of Management. 
ne 
