222 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



anxiety that he will not do well in the service. The standard, 

 it will be admitted, is somewhat high. Forty-five years ago 

 forestry as a science was unknown in England, and we are 

 indebted to Germany for its mauguration in India. The name 

 of the late Sir Dietrich Brandis will always be remembered as 

 the founder of Indian forestry, and his successors, Sir William 

 Schlich and Dr Ribbentrop, worthily continued his labours. 

 Between 1869 and 1881 the officers of the Imperial Service 

 studied their profession in France and Germany; up to 1905 

 they were educated at Coopers Hill College, and since then the 

 University of Oxford has been entrusted with their probationary 

 training. It is still found advisable, owing to the paucity of 

 areas managed on silvicultural lines in England, to make these 

 probationers acquainted with such areas on the Continent, and 

 thus they come to India with a good knowledge of what a 

 well-tended forest of European species should be, and ready to 

 apply this knowledge, as far as it is possible, to the varied 

 conditions of vegetation and population in the East. The 

 advantages following the study of the science in the country 

 where it is to be practised are, however, not yet within the 

 reach of the Indian probationer, and his application of the 

 theories and practice of European forestry (as well as of any 

 theories of Indian forestry that may have been imparted to 

 him) to Indian conditions depends, perhaps, to too great an 

 extent on his subsequent efforts, made for the love of his 

 profession. 



It is probably the opinion of the majority in the present day 

 that education must, to be up to date, be accompanied by 

 research. The Forest Research Institute was created in 1906, 

 and its labours in the way of zoology (chiefly insect damage, to 

 which the Indian forests are most liable), and of applied botany 

 and chemistry, most important in the discovery and investiga- 

 tion of forest products and of forest economics, with a view to 

 bringing valuable products to the notice of consumers, have 

 already proved its value. There is also in this Institute a 

 special branch for silviculture and forest working-plans, and 

 there can be no doubt that a beginning has been made from 

 which important results may be expected. 



The Government of India have proved of late years, in the 

 most practical manner, their belief in the importance of State 

 forestry and of its increasing value, by raising the standard of 



