34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
regeneration of timber-crops. Hence, even though the land- 
agent has studied forestry, this does not necessarily mean that 
he has specialised in this branch; and, unless based upon the 
practical knowledge gained from specialising and from actual 
work in the woods, a purely theoretical working-plan would be 
of little use for practical purposes. 
In his student days the land-agent has (in addition to 
agriculture) to study chemistry, veterinary surgery, and the 
law of landlord and tenant. In fact, a sound theoretical and 
practical knowledge of these cognate subjects is at least as 
necessary as, and often really more important to him than 
an acquaintance with forestry. Without a fair knowledge of 
these, no man can be considered well-equipped for the work 
of estate management. But does the prudent agent, on that 
account, dispense with the occasional services of the agricultural 
chemist, the veterinary surgeon, or the solicitor? No, certainly 
not; and anyone who did so would probably be held to be 
a very rash person, inconsiderate alike of his own reputation 
and of his employer’s interests. And yet the mistakes that 
can easily be made owing to want of proper management 
and of proper action with regard to the woods and plantations 
may (as these investments grow at compound interest into 
a large capital in the course of time) in the long run prove 
far more important from a pecuniary point of view than would 
be the errors made by injudicious treatment of cattle disease, 
or by faults in drawing up leases. But there is the one great 
difference, that mistakes of this latter kind make themselves 
painfully apparent at once, and become much talked of, whereas 
faults committed in the silent woods and in the young planta- 
tions do not cry aloud to all men; they may remain unnoticed 
and unknown, and are very often entirely unsuspected even by 
those who have caused them. 
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this great still 
silence of the often mismanaged woodlands is probably the 
main reason why a land-agent feels completely sure of managing 
his woodlands well, when he will at the same time shrink from 
taking into his own hands the treatment of sick cattle or the 
drafting of leases and covenants often really affecting much 
smaller sums of money than are represented by the woods and 
plantations. 
