THE ANNUAL MEETING. 99 



as to the best places where schools could be put up for 

 woodmen, and how the education of forest officers might best 

 be promoted. One school for the training of practical foresters 

 in Scotland is, of course, quite inadequate for the needs of the 

 country. The demand for practical foresters will probably 

 necessitate the establishment of three or four schools. These 

 might be situated in the north, south, east, or west, but 

 wherever these schools are established they will be necessarily 

 limited as regards the number of men they can accommodate, 

 because it is impossible to have a school for teaching practical 

 woodmen, unless there are sufficient existing woodlands to keep 

 them employed. The choice of stations, therefore, for these 

 schools is at present very limited. There must be a certain 

 amount of woodland before you can keep a big squad of men 

 employed, and those compact blocks of woodland are not very 

 easily found in Scotland. Such as there were have been con- 

 siderably eaten into, but I hope they will be re-planted, and that 

 in itself would give employment for a considerable part of the 

 year, at any rate, to the men who were learning forestry. They 

 would get a thorough grounding in the necessary preliminary 

 work and in the planting work of that particular district. These 

 schools, I hope, will be set up before very long. 



" Then, as regards the forest officers, a very large number of 

 army officers have made application for instruction in forestry 

 with a view to taking it up as a profession. Well, as Colonel 

 Sutherland has told you, the number of appointments is very 

 limited. The only advantage is there will be a big field to 

 choose from, but the number of disappointed men will, I think, 

 be very considerable. That, however, is not the fault of the 

 Authority, because they did not either start the scheme of 

 teaching these officers or make themselves in any way respon- 

 sible for them. I hope, however, in the future the permanent 

 Authority which will be set up will take the matter very seriously 

 in hand, and see that a sufficient supply of forest officers 

 thoroughly trained in all the scientific departments will be 

 maintained in this country. There are openings, of course, 

 for thoroughly trained forest officers, not only in State forests 

 but in private forests, where they are sufficiently large to 

 warrant the employment of a thoroughly trained head forest 

 officer, and in all probability it will pay an estate well to 

 employ the thoroughly trained man instead of the partially 



