THE INDIAN FOREST SCHOOL. L5v 
officers in their own provinces, should be sent to Roorkee 
or some other civil engineering college, in order to go 
through a course of mathematics, surveying and civil 
engineering. 
The first of these proposals was declined by Government, but the 
second was accepted with some modifications, and twelve appren- 
tices were ordered to be selected. The scheme, which was only 
intended as a temporary arrangement, did not, however, turn out 
a success ; in some cases the men were not judiciously selected, in 
others want of organisation in the subordinate grades of the de- 
partment led to a difficulty and delay in appointing them to 
suitable posts ; while it became too much the custom to use the 
apprentices, during their period of practical training, before en- 
trance to the college, in assisting current work rather than in 
learning their profession, and the system consequently fell into 
disuse. In the North-Western Provinces an attempt was then 
made to train candidates at the Civil Engineering College at 
Roorkee under a somewhat different arrangement, and in the 
Central Provinces a system of training apprentices was also 
commenced, while the Government suggested that the chief forest 
officers of the various provinces should seek for suitable men 
among the ordinary students at the Civil Engineering Colleges, 
and this was also tried. In 1876, Sir Richard Temple, then 
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Bengal, contemplated the 
establishment of a local school of forestry, but the project was not 
carried out, neither did any of the proposed arrangements give 
results that were considered completely satisfactory. 
Things went on in this way until 1878, when Mr Brandis laid 
before the Government detailed proposals for the establishment of 
a Central Forest School, remarking that the necessary outlay 
would be covered within a few years by increased revenue 
produced under a stronger staff with more systematic manage- 
ment; and he added, that “a new era of forestry would commence, 
and a new impulse would be given to progress, by the professional 
education of Forest Rangers and Foresters.” The Government, 
by a Resolution of the lst July 1878, accepted these recommen- 
dations and ordered that a school should be established. It was 
said that the chief objects were to prepare natives of the different 
Provinces of India for the executive charge of forest ranges, and 
to enable forest rangers to qualify themselves for promotion to 
