REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. (5 
porting?” “TJ think that would be a difficult question to determine ; 
it is difficult to predicate what the number of students would be 
who would attend the school. The class of agriculture in Edin- 
burgh varies from 20 to 40, and we should have reason to hope for 
at least an equal number.”—‘‘ What class of people would attend 
the arboricultural classes in Edinburgh?” ‘“ Those who are looking 
forward to being estate agents, factors, nurserymen, and such like.” 
—‘‘Ts not there a great difficulty in Scotland that many of them 
could not afford to pay the price for the forestry course ?” “ That 
is a question which I could not answer without more consideration.” 
—Supposing I pay my forester £50 or £60 a year, he is not ina 
position to go through a very expensive course of education ?” 
“No; but he might have had 18 months or two years’ training 
with great advantage : he need not have been there all the year ; 
he might have been there half a year for two years. To obtain 
those certificates of forestry which are granted by the Highland 
and Agricultural Society, we find that two seasons are generally 
sufficient. That is the beginning of what I would like to see.”— 
‘| think you were already asked about the advisability of planting 
more extensively in Scotland on the mountain slopes and places of 
that kind ; but is not there the difficulty that many of those places 
are very inaccessible to railway communication?” ‘* Wherever they 
are inaccessible I wouid hardly advise their being planted ; I would 
say, generally, that near navigable rivers, and wherever you could — 
get the timber out, it would re-pay its expenses.” —‘ Do you think 
that the planting would pay as well as grouse moors or deer 
forests?” “That is rather a difficult question to answer at pre- 
sent.” —“If you planted great tracts of forest land you would 
exclude sheep, and you take away from the food supply of the 
country?” ‘You do not require to exclude sheep everywhere 
after a certain time, and the grazing would improve.” 
“How many years do you think you would have to exclude 
sheep ?” ‘“‘ Perhaps thirty years.” 
“Thirty years out of how many?” “After thirty years you 
might let the sheep in—that is, till the trees approached maturity. 
I am not speaking exactly, but somewhat in approximation.” 
“Ts it not the case that after a fir wood has grown up to a certain 
height there is very little undergrowth?” “The undergrowth dies 
away after a certain time ; it depends upon the light and shade. 
The German forests are usually darker than the British ones; a 
German forester always looks up to see what quantity of light 
