338 REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY, 
field of research.”—‘‘So that, although that might not be the 
primary object of the school, you think it would be a very con- 
siderable advantage?”  ‘‘ Certainly.” 
“This elaborate course of study that you suggest is, presumably, 
only for those foresters who are to be employed abroad in public 
work?” ‘My view is that the students should be trained as stu- 
dents, and, if necessary, fitted for any appointment in India and the 
colonies, or at home, for their being thoroughly qualified scientific 
students of forestry, with the full knowledge of the practical appli- 
cation to be made of the science.”—“ What interests proprietors in 
Scotland more is the kind of smaller education to be given to the 
foresters to whom we pay, say from £80 to £100 a year; have you 
any plan to suggest which would lay down the principles for the 
systematic training of such men?” “TI consider that if such an idea 
as [ have thrown out were followed, such students could attend the 
Watt Institute at comparatively small expense. They might attend 
one year or more, and arrangements might be made for giving them 
instruction in the evening, so that they might support themselves 
by working in the nurseries in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 
If it were considered unadvisable that they should go through a 
two and a half years’ course, there could be no difficulty in the pro- 
fessor giving a short summary of forest science in its application to 
practical forestry in fifty lectures or in a hundred lectures ; and the 
attendance upon such lectures, of course, would clearly meet the 
case of such persons as you have referred to. I have been long 
desirous that forestry should be introduced into our primary schools. 
The arrangements made at Kensington are such as would facilitate 
this being done at very little expense, and thus there would be 
raised up a body of well-instructed woodmen, forest labourers, and 
others.”—‘“ Colonel Pearson told us that he thought a sufficiently 
practical course might be given to foresters of this stamp in three 
months ; do you agree with that?” ‘I do not believe it. Referring 
to the views that are entertained by foresters, forest administrators 
who are Government officials, and professors of forest science, their 
general impression appears to me to be that it is desirable that 
when students are at college they should be at college, and that 
when they are in the forest they should be in the forest ; that 
they should be at the school the whole time, except on Saturday 
afternoon excursions to the forest, and then spend some time—say 
three months, six months, or whatever time may be allowed them — 
in practical work in the forests.” 
