REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FoRESTRY. 121 
Chairman will recollect the circumstance, as he presided on the 
occasion of a paper being read by Colonel Pearson, who, in alluding 
to the commencement of the Forest Department of India, com- 
menced with the year 1857. Upon that Dr Birdwood (now Sir 
George) wrote a letter, published in the “Journal of the Society 
of Arts,” in which he mentioned that just ten years before that date 
the foundation upon which the Forest Department was constructed 
had been deeply laid in the Madras Presidency when Major- 
General Frederick Cotton, who was then a captain in the Madras 
Engineers, first drew the attention of the Government of Madras 
to the subject. And then he goes on to say that I was appointed 
to carry out the experiment, and that in consequence of the success 
of that undertaking between 1848 and 1856, the Court of Directors 
sanctioned the application of these plans to other forests in the 
Madras Presidency, and directed the formation of a regular Forest 
Department, which was commenced then, and spread throughout 
the whole of India.”—“‘ Have you any idea how that came to be 
originated with General Frederick Cotton?” “I know perfectly, 
because I saw a great deal of him at that time, as I was placed 
under his orders. Riding across the southern forests of the Madras 
Presidency, then unexplored, he was struck with the bad order in 
which they were kept, being destroyed as they were by Government 
leasing them out to contractors instead of keeping them in their 
own hands. It struck him that if the Government would put a 
stop to that system, this terrible waste would be stopped, and he urged 
the matter upon the Madras Government. Upon his recommenda- 
tion those steps were taken. He was asked if he would undertake to 
put a stop to waste in, at all events, a small portion of the forests. 
He consented, and he asked for me as an assistant, as we had beer 
much together ; my regiment had been stationed at the same place, 
and we had hunted together. Having known me in this way he 
asked for my services, as he also knew I had had some little experi- 
ence of forestry in Europe before I entered the army.” 
“Do you think it desirable that a forest school should be eee 
lished in this country?” ‘“‘ Certainly, it could not fail to be of 
value to the country.”—“ Irrespective of giving training for India 2?” 
“Yes, I think for the country generally it would be immensely 
valuable for landowners and men who own large woods in this 
country if they could have men with better training than those 
they have now.”—‘“‘Is it not a fact that great proprietors fre- 
quently are in want of good scientific information as to the forest 
