36 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



will agree with me that the more efficient the training the forester 

 who has charge of those woods can be given, the more valuable 

 will be his work, the more enjoyable will be his life, and the 

 better grown and better kept will be the woods in his charge. 

 And what does it all reduce itself to? Any forest officer will 

 tell you that the more, up to a certain point, that is spent on 

 the efficient supervision and working of the wood, the greater 

 will be the pecuniary return. It is the sole aim of a working- 

 plan, based on financial results ; and we have seen that this is 

 fully recognised on the Continent where they are not given to 

 spending money without obtaining an adequate return ; and yet 

 they spend large sums on their forestry educational establish- 

 ments ! A full knowledge then of what a plan is and how it 

 should be worked is one of the essentials we propose that the 

 student taking our Degree course here shall go out into the 

 woods armed wath. He will still have much to learn, but we shall 

 have, we shall hope to have, given him, along with our up-to-date 

 forestry education, one of the most valuable gifts education 

 can give to a man, the power of observing. A forester who has 

 not this power were better employed elsewhere, for he will never 

 be of any use in the woods. We shall also hope to have 

 inculcated him with the faculty of taking responsibility and of 

 acting in sudden emergencies. I have mentioned a few of the 

 duties of a forester. I have not alluded to one of the most 

 severe, that of fire protection. The danger from fire to the forest 

 in the dry portions of a year is one well known to everyone. 

 But what this danger amounts to in a hot country during the hot 

 season, can scarcely be imagined by those who have not seen a 

 forest fire raging along through walls of tall elephant grass with 

 a fierce hot wind behind it. Whether a few square miles or 

 several hundreds of square miles of valuable forest are burnt on 

 such occasions depends almost entirely on the resource and 

 quickness of decision of the forest officer on the spot. The 

 prevention of fires or their limitation is often also entirely due to 

 the personal qualities or influence or power of observation of the 

 local officer. May I give an instance of the latter? There is 

 in India a small bird known as the weaver bird, who constructs 

 grass nests having the shape of a soda-water bottle, though 

 often much larger, the entrance being near the base. This nest 

 is slung to a twig of a tree by a few slender grass threads. The 

 bird loves to live in colonies, and you may find as many as 



