FORESTRY EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN. I4I 



necessary grants, and I can think of nothing better than to make 

 the Office of Woods worthy of its name. A Board of three would 

 suffice — a chairman of practical experience, recognised as an 

 authority ; an expert British forester, capable of founding a 

 British School of Forestry ; a first-rate factor or surveyor, able 

 to carry through purchases of land, and to deal with problems 

 of the incidence of local taxation, and of severance, questions 

 which must inevitably be raised — especially in the Highlands— by 

 afforestation on the large scale. The selection of both the forester 

 and the land agent is of supreme importance : the initial cost and 

 ultimate financial success of the undertaking must depend very 

 much on the latter. It would be the function of the chairman 

 to keep in touch with the Development Commission, and, perhaps, 

 to some extent also with the civil servant and the politician. 

 Given a right Board of Forestry, there need be no fear of the 

 success of the forestry section of the " Development" enterprise. 



20. Forestry Education in Great Britain. ^ 



In November 1902, a Departmental Committee appointed by 

 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to inquire into and 

 report upon British forestry presented an unanimous Report 

 (Cd. 1319) in which they urged, as the cardinal point of their 

 recommendations, " the immediate and effective provision for 

 bringing systematised instruction (in forestry) within the reach 

 of owners, foresters and woodmen." An article appeared in the 

 issue of the Journal of the Board of Agriculture for April 1904, 

 in which was shown the effect which had been given to this 

 recommendation up to that time. The purpose of the present 

 article is to show what further progress has been made, and 

 what facilities exist in Great Britain at the present time for 

 instruction in forestry. 



At the time the Departmental Committee were conducting 

 their inquiry there were, broadly speaking, no organised courses 

 of instruction in forestry in Great Britain other than those held 

 at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill, and at 

 the University of Edinburgh. At the present time there 

 exist the following centres : — The University of Oxford, to which 

 the Indian School of Forestry has been transferred ; the Forest 



1 From the Journal of the Board of Agriculture. By permission of the 

 Controller of II. M. Stationery Office. 



