FORESTRY APPOINTMENTS, 131 
FORESTRY APPOINTMENTS: 
PROFESSOR SOMERVILLE. 
The most important appointment of the year is that of 
Dr Somerville, one of the Assistant Secretaries to the Board of 
Agriculture, to the Sibthorpian Chair of Rural Economy in the 
University of Oxford. Professor Somerville commenced his 
career as an agriculturist, and he enjoys the distinction of being 
the first student to obtain the then recently instituted degree of 
B.Sc. in agriculture at the University of Edinburgh. Next 
turning his attention to forestry, he repaired to the famous Forest 
School of Munich, where he graduated D.CEc., and on his return 
to Scotland he started a course of lectures on forestry in the 
University of Edinburgh. Soon thereafter he was appointed 
Professor of Agriculture and Forestry in the Durham College 
of Science at Newcastle-on-Tyne; subsequently he was trans- 
ferred to the Chair of Agriculture in Cambridge University ; 
next he went to the Board of Agriculture as one of its Assistant 
Secretaries ; and now he has been selected to fill the important 
post above alluded to. All members of the Society who know 
Professor Somerville and the good work he has done for forestry 
will wish him every success in his new post. 
Mr A. C. FOoRBEs. 
Mr Arthur C. Forbes, Lecturer in Forestry at the Armstrong 
College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, has been appointed Forestry Expert 
under the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 
for Ireland. As a practical forester, Mr Forbes has had an 
extensive experience, he having held the post of head forester 
for a number of years on the Wiltshire estates of the Marquis 
of Lansdowne, and prior to his appointment to Newcastle he 
held a similar position on the estates of the Marquis of Bath. 
