REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. I 33 



with a view to becoming a factor, or for other reasons. Of the 

 Scots forestry students who are included in the numbers given 

 above, the large majority belong to the latter class. And so 

 long as three separate agricultural colleges are maintained in 

 the country — an arrangement for which there are, no doubt, 

 good reasons — we think it important that the students should 

 be able to obtain at their own college, if they desire it, at 

 least such instruction in forestry as has hitherto been provided 

 for them there (Appendix III.). The evening classes and 

 summer courses, also, which have been conducted for working 

 foresters and others at the respective centres, supply a local 

 demand which will probably continue to exist in some form 

 even after the establishment of a school for apprentices at the 

 Demonstration Forest, and which could not well be met by 

 any single institution. To this extent, therefore, we consider 

 that there is justification for the continuance of forestry teaching 

 at three centres. There is even room for the development of 

 all three on a moderate scale. They are lamentably deficient 

 in the space necessary for housing collections ; and we have 

 already stated our views as to the need of a forest garden for 

 each of them. 



For the training of a forest-officer a two years' course of 

 study in forestry, following on a year's study in pure science — 

 such as is this year being instituted for the first time in^ 

 Scotland, at Edinburgh (Appendix III.) — is the very least that 

 could be regarded as adequate ; and even this falls short of 

 the continental standard (Appendix VII.). An extension of 

 the course at any of the three centres would involve fresh 

 demands upon the teaching start, and a school which is to 

 undertake the training of forest-officers must not be stinted 

 either in this respect or in the accommodation needed for its- 

 museum and for conducting those branches of instruction and 

 research which belong to the laboratory rather than to the forest. 

 The examination which we have made of the schools of forestry 

 at Munich and Tharandt has convinced us that such an 

 institution cannot be made really efficient unless it is on a 

 scale which it would be ridiculous to repeat three times in 

 Scotland. We are, therefore, clearly of opinion that for the 

 training of forest-officers there should be one fully developed 

 school in Scotland, and only one. 



The committee has fullv considered whether such a school. 



