8 
formulate a practical scheme for educating young working foresters 
as well as gardeners, in the science of their profession. It has been 
talked of for a long time ; now we rejoice that it is on the eve of 
accomplishment. We are all pleased to hear that Mr Methven 
and the other gentlemen in the nursery trade mean to give their 
support to Professor Bayley Balfour to make this a really workable 
and efficient scheme. 
Professor BAYLEY BALFour in reply, said,—I thank you very 
much for this expression of confidence. I shall ask the Society 
to help me to circulate further information regarding the scheme 
as soon as the details are definitely arranged. I should like 
to say how pleased I am to have confirmation, of what I knew 
would be the case, that the nurserymen of Edinburgh mean to 
co-operate in promoting this scheme. With their co-operation, I 
am sure we shall be able to carry it out to a successful issue. In 
drawing up this scheme, I have taken the same view that I think 
most of you take—that the education of the forester and the 
gardener is fundamentally the same. They are both dealing 
with the same class of objects, and the cultivation of the one is 
practically, in so far as the scientific principles are concerned, the 
cultivation of the other. It is only when you come to the higher 
branches of culture that the two diverge. It will do both a great 
amount of good to know something of the work of the other. 
THe CHAIR OF FORESTRY. 
Dr SomerviLLtE—At this late hour I will not detain you 
by a long statement on this subject. As a matter of fact, very 
little indeed is necessary. Professor Bayley Balfour has laid 
before us a very complete scheme for the training of working 
foresters. We can leave that scheme with confidence in his hands. 
I would only impress this upon him as very desirable, that the 
authorities at the Botanic Garden should avoid giving a certificate 
to any man who has passed through the course, but who is not 
a thoroughly practical forester. I do not know how Professor 
Balfour can best keep out those men who have not a knowledge 
of practical forestry, but I have no doubt he will find some safe 
way to overcome this difficulty. The teaching which has already 
been given has even now borne good fruit. They would have seen 
with pleasure that one of the students who had taken the 
University Course of Forestry Lectures—Mr A. C. Forbes—had 
suddenly sprung into the very front rank, having just been 
