130 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not got the necessary means to enable him to do so, and the 

 problem therefore is — How is this kind of teaching to be 

 brought within the reach of this class of man? 



"So far as the higher teaching of forestry goes, England 

 has, of course, been in advance of the other parts of the 

 United Kingdom; but Scotland can, I think, lay claim to 

 being the pioneer in the provision of technical instruction for 

 the working forester. Twenty-five years ago, three years before 

 the Society visited Germany, and years before the Forest of 

 Dean School was started, a course of instruction for practical 

 foresters and gardeners was organised by Professor Bayley 

 Balfour at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, and I do 

 not think I exaggerate when I say that that course has made 

 its impress on the forestry of the country, I know that we 

 have here to-day head foresters and others who passed through 

 that course, and I hope that they will give us their views on 

 this matter when the general discussion comes on. I may 

 state briefly that this course was devised to suit the requirements 

 of both foresters and gardeners, and they had to produce 

 evidence that they had had at least three years of practical 

 experience before entry. It commenced with what may be 

 called the fundamental sciences — chemistry and general physics, 

 followed by botany, geology, meteorology, mensuration and land- 

 surveying, entomology, book-keeping, forestry, and gardening, 

 and there were lectures on special subjects in connection with 

 forestry and gardening by experts. The course extended over 

 about three years. The classes were held in the evenings, and 

 the young men who attended them formed the garden staff", and 

 were paid the ordinary wages of the staff' at that time for their 

 labour. It was an excellent course, and one on which any 

 course of this sort might be modelled. The only two stand- 

 points from which it might be adversely criticised are (a) that 

 the foresters did not learn any practical forestry in connection 

 with their work, and (/') that it might be argued with some 

 force that it is a mistake to attempt to teach more or less tired 

 students in the evenings. But the latter objection did not 

 seem to apply in this case at any rate, for the men who passed 

 through the course showed an intense eagerness to take full 

 advantage of the teaching, and to make the most of the 

 opportunity, in which they were much assisted by the use of a 

 good library of books bearing on the subjects taught. In a 



