REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY, 145 
out of the fir, so that a little scientific training would have saved 
a great deal of loss.”—‘‘ Does not the system of planting wind- 
breaks, as they are called in America, where they run sometimes 
100 miles or more, require a considerable knowledge of something 
more than the mere growing of trees?” ‘I can speak of a forest 
of larch, which is very near the place where I live, in Radnorshire ; 
a magnificent forest, which has succeeded in every way. Seeing 
that was so successful, the late owner planted the opposite side of 
the hill with larch too, and that has been an entire failure. I took 
one of the French professors over with me last year, and we at once 
came to the conclusion that the first forest was planted in a proper 
‘ exposition,’ as we call it, that is, suitable to the growth of the 
larch, whereas the other was not, because one was dying away, 
though it was not attacked by disease, while the other was doing 
perfectly well.” 
“Do you think a practical course of two or three months might 
be advantageous to those who are not rich [such as the sons of 
foresters, farmers, ground-oflficers, and others], and could afford only 
a short space of time?” “I think a chair of forestry at the 
Edinburgh University, where many of those young men go, with a 
course of lectures of three months (because I do not think any man 
could give a course of lectures that would be any practical use at 
all under three months), would greatly meet the want. Part of this 
might be in the school and part education in the forest ; I know 
that a good many of these young men, who are farmers’ sons and the 
like, do go to Edinburgh and get an excellent education for a small 
sum ; they might give a certain number of months of their time up 
to learning forestry, and the more the better, as the more knowledge 
they would be able to get the more capable men they would be. I 
think that would have the best possible effect in Scotland.”— 
‘Have you any great faith in teaching?” “ Lectures in the school 
I have actually no faith in unless illustrated by practical instruction. 
If you tell a man in the lecture-room that such and such conse- 
quences will take place, and do not show him the consequences on 
the spot, he does not believe anything about it ; it goes in at one 
ear and out at the other ; he will think it all nonsense; but if you 
want to impress your teaching upon him you must take him out 
into the forest and show him the operations of nature.”—‘“ He 
would have to plant trees, I suppose?” ‘‘ He would have to learn 
that under a wood manager ; he would have to find time to dovetail 
that in, but it would not form part of the school instruction. In 
