34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the locality I am describing, a number of large areas of forest, 

 some consisting of pure bamboo, others of dense tropical forest 

 trees had to be carefully inspected, with the object of the prepara- 

 tion of plans for their working. I have not time to deal with 

 this aspect of the forest officer's work to-day. But a working- 

 plan made for a wood practically lays down for a number of 

 years the methods on which the wood is to be worked ; the 

 cuttings to be made ; the roads, slides, tram or sledge roads, or 

 rope-ways to be built to enable the timber to be got out ; the 

 areas to be sown or planted up ; weedings to be done ; in a 

 tropical forest the areas over which the giant creepers festooning 

 the trees are to be cut in order that they may be killed before 

 the area is felled over a few years hence, for otherwise they will 

 hold the tree in its position and it will not fall, though it may be 

 cut through at the base, etc. The preparation of a plan of 

 working for a forest is one of the most interesting and at the 

 same time most exacting pieces of work which confronts the 

 forester. The forester without the knowledge of how to properly 

 prepare one, loses an incalculable amount of the interest his 

 profession contains. Before preparing a working-plan, the 

 forester must make himself thoroughly acquainted with the land 

 tenure systems of the country in which his woods are situated, 

 with the law of the country, with its botany so far as it applies 

 to the woods, geological formation, chemistry of the soils so far 

 as it affects his species of trees, etc. He must have an intimate 

 acquaintance with the wants of the local people, with the local 

 markets where he may dispose of his produce, and with those 

 farther afield to which his large produce may be disposed of at 

 advantageous rates. And all this knowledge he will have to 

 acquire, in addition to an exhaustive examination of what the 

 wood contains at the present time, before he can draw up 

 his proposals for its future working. This may involve its 

 entire reconstitution, and they must be so laid down in the 

 plan that his successor, or successors, may carry out the 

 prescriptions laid down without the danger of any deviations. 

 For the plan will provide that no deviations whatsoever may be 

 made by the forest officer in charge, without the direct permission 

 in writing of the owner. 



And this brings us to the management of woods for which a 

 working-plan has been prepared. Higher forestry education is 

 essential for the efficient working of such a plan, for even the 



