REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 361 
siderable height ; would the birch be suitable for that purpose ?” 
‘Tt would be suitable to a very fair extent; but it is not one of 
the best. The birch is not a very deep-rooted tree, but it has a 
thin crown, and consequently it is not often thrown, There are 
other trees which would stand more firmly, but in many places 
the birch in this respect is a very useful tree, where perhaps it 
would not be possible to grow another tree that would stand 
more firmly.”—‘“ The beech would be suitable, would it not?” 
“Where the birch would come in the beech would probably be 
out of the question ; the birch is a much harder tree, and it has 
an enormous power of accommodation ; it will accommodate itself 
to almost any circumstances.” —‘‘ What sort of height would you 
consider that a tree would require to grow to be a protection to 
the firs; because the time of great danger to our Scottish wood- 
lands would be when they were from thirty to forty years old?” 
** Old trees are much more liable to be thrown than young trees ; 
the fringe would grow up with the rest of the forest.”—“ In one 
case you would have a slow growing hardwood tree and a very 
fast growing softwood tree?” “No doubt.”—‘ But the birch 
answers very fairly as a belt, and breaks the wind to a very consider- 
able extent?” ‘It does break the wind to a considerable extent.” 
“From what you say it appears that there would not be a very 
great demand for men who have acquired technical knowledge in 
regard to this question after two or three years’ study?” “I 
understand you to mean men who have gone through an extended 
course of two or three years?” “Yes?” “Ido not think that 
outside the Indian Forest Department the demand would be very 
large.” —“ If there were such a class of men as independent men 
in private practice, it seems to me that they would fulfil the want 
referred to, by going out and advising landowners in regard to 
private properties?” ‘I have a difficulty in replying to that 
question, for this reason, that even men who have been trained in 
a course of two years or so would not be the proper persons to be 
employed as advisers upon such a matter as forest management ; 
generally speaking, they would be good managers of a forest 
estate; but for giving advice after an examination of a limited 
duration nobody should be employed who had not had some years 
of practical experience himself in a forest ; owners would probably 
save a good deal of money by attending to this.”—“ In view of 
the forests of this country being in the hands of private owners, 
is not there a great need that those who manage those forests for 
