24 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



3. Forestry Education : Its Importance and 

 Requirements.^ 



By E. P. Stebking. 



I propose to deal to-day with a brief exposition of the points 

 on which the system of forestry education is based. I hope 

 thereby to show what this University requires to place its Forest 

 Department on thoroughly up-to-date lines, and thus enable it 

 to turn out men as efficient and capable of managing woods as 

 are the men trained in the various famous forestry schools of 

 Europe. 



It will be of interest, I think, to first glance briefly at the 

 training to be obtained at some of the European forestry schools, 

 and the facilities provided for giving it. We will then consider 

 some of the things the student in forestry must know, and in 

 this connection glance briefly at a few of the duties which 

 confront the Forest Officer in the course of his ordinary work 

 in India, concluding finally with a review of the present position 

 of the University as regards forestry training and the steps 

 which require to be taken to enable us to send out the class of 

 British forester which is already required in many of our 

 colonies, and for which we trust there will soon be a demand in 

 the British Isles. 



A few years ago, whilst on furlough from India, I made a 

 tour of some of the forestry colleges and schools of Europe, 

 my object being to study the lines upon which the continental 

 system of education was based, and the methods they adopted 

 to combine a proper proportion of practical work with the 

 theoretical instruction given in the classroom. In the course 

 of my tour I visited Eberswalde, Tharandt, AschaflFenberg and 

 Munich Forestry Schools in Germany, the Imperial Forestry 

 Institute at St Petersburg, the Agricultural and Forestry 

 Institute at Vienna, and the fine French Forest School at Nancy. 

 That tour was an education in itself. Briefly I may sum up the 

 results of my observations as to the essentials for the tuition of 

 forestry thus : — 



1. A Strong Teaching Staff'. 



2. Good Museums. 



3. A Forest Garden and Forest Educational Woods. 



^ Inaugural address delivered at the opening of the Winter Course in 

 Forestry, at Edinburgh University, on I2th October 1910. 



