54 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



II. Forest Nurseries and Gardens — Some Suggestions. 



By Lieut. -Colonel F. Bailev. 

 I. 



In a previous issue of the Transactions I drew attention to the 

 recommendations made by the Forestry Committee (1902) in 

 regard to State Demonstration Forests and Example Plots or 

 Forest Gardens. The Committee's suggestion was that an area 

 of from 100 to 200 acres, to be used as a garden, should be 

 provided at each educational centre. The purpose of the garden 

 is thus stated in pars. 15, 20, and 36 of the Report : ^ — 



" Even where access may be had to private woods, it is exceed- 

 ingly desirable that collegiate instruction in forestry should be 

 illustrated by means of example plots. These are a considerable 

 feature of the teaching in the University of Giessen and else- 

 where on the Continent, and they have been reproduced on 

 a small scale at Coopers Hill and on the Northumberland 

 Demonstration Farm." 



" We have stated that we consider it necessary to have ' Ex- 

 ample Plots ' in connection with the universities and other centres 

 of instruction, as well as two large State Demonstration Areas ; 

 and it may be well to explain here why both are required. The 

 Example Plots should embrace a comparatively small area, and 

 comprise an arboretum or collection of specimen trees, and also 

 an area devoted to the experimental planting and growth of 

 trees in masses up to a certain age.'- Such an area cannot, from 

 the very nature of the objects aimed at, be expected to yield a 

 profitr . . . Forest students from the universities and others 

 would spend a week or two at a time, or longer, in the Demon- 

 stration Forest ; but they and the lecturer also require an area 

 close at /land,'- to which resort can be more frequently made." 



Referring to the above extracts, I observed that their perusal 

 left no doubt that the Committee desired each teaching centre to 

 have its own " Example Plots " or Forest Gardens (as I prefer 

 to call them), and that they intended these gardens to be 

 " close at hand," so that frequent visits to them might be made. 

 It is, indeed, essential that lectures should be " illustrated " by 

 means of such gardens, because in regard to most of the subjects 



' " Example Plots or Forest Gardens," Vol. XIX. p. 317. 

 - The italics are mine. — F. B. 



