DEMONSTRATION FORESTS FOR SCOTLAND. 25 



features of good silviculture. For this reason, the purpose 

 would not be served by comparatively bare areas of waste land, 

 such as the Argyllshire property, recently taken up by the 

 Commission of Woods and Forests. It stands to reason that, 

 admirable as the acquisition of the latter is as the first real 

 attempt at afforestatmi on the part of Government, it would for 

 many years be of no use as an illustration of the scientific 

 management of a properly stocked forest. 



For educational purposes, two other requisites are necessary. 

 These are sample areas, or a Forest Garden and a Forest 

 Nursery. The former is, to all practical purposes, merely a 

 miniature forest, with a rotation reaching to about thirty or forty 

 years. It is primarily intended for purposes oi practising iox&sivy, 

 and should be devoted to experiments of various kinds as regards 

 silvicultural methods, artificial reproduction, and utilisation of 

 produce. The extent of land requisite for this purpose need 

 not exceed loo to 150 acres, which would be divided into 

 regular compartments, grouped in one or more series. In such 

 an area, when fully stocked, all the primary operations of 

 silviculture could be practised and demonstrated. The ultimate 

 problems, such as final fellings and natural reproduction, would 

 be reserved for the Demonstration Forest proper. 



The Forest Nursery would, of course, be devoted to the rais- 

 ing of plants from seed, from cuttings, and from small seedlings. 

 Experiments in germination, and the physical and chemical 

 analysis of soils, would most suitably be studied here. Five to 

 ten acres would suffice for all the purposes of a nursery. It is 

 absolutely essential that the sample area of the Forest Nursery 

 should be within easy reach of the lecture-room, so that students 

 would be able, without difficulty, to spend there a few hours 

 after lecture, and verify for themselves the theories expounded 

 in the morning's instruction. If the Demonstration Forest were 

 close to Edinburgh, a separate sample area would not be 

 required, as it would occur naturally in the various stages of 

 the growing stock, and the nursery would, of course, be made 

 in the forest itself. But this ideal being unattainable, the small 

 extent of land required for a sample area should be at once 

 secured and put in order. The ground should lie as near as 

 possible to the tram-line, or other ready means of communication. 



To sum up the foregoing : Instruction in Scientific Forestry 

 in Scotland necessitates the acquisition of two Demonstration 



