ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 7, 1873. 117 



1 feci assured that it will be mutually beneficial to comply with 

 the request to send our Transactions to the officials and associations 

 named by Dr Brandis, and to cultivate as far as possible a free 

 interchange of experiences. This will tend to fulfil the object of 

 the deputation which it was proposed last year should visit the 

 Continent, and we may hope to receive in Scotland some of the 

 eminent foresters of those countries, to whom we could show much 

 that woidd be highly interesting and instructive. 



Among the materials for an address on the progress and state 

 of forestry in Britain I specially notice a small volume of Ee- 

 ports on Forest Management in Germany, Austria, and Great 

 Britain, lately printed by order of H.M. Secretary of State for 

 India (Duke of Argyll). The table of contents indicates details of 

 the system adopted in various countries. Captain Walker, who 

 spent some time in the Scotch forests of the Duke of Athole 

 and the Earls of Mansfield and Seafield, describes their manage- 

 ment, and also fully explains the system of forestry in operation 

 in some States of Germany and Austria, which he studied when in 

 Europe on leave from India. Mr Gustav Mann contributes a paper 

 on the silver fir and spruce forests of the Hartz. Mr G. Eoss 

 gives an account of the laws and regulations of the village and 

 ecclesiastical forests in the province of Hanover, and also a paper on 

 plantations of Scotch fir on moor-pan soil in Germany. Mr J. W. 

 Webber writes on the natural oak forests of Sussex, and Dr 

 Brandis concludes the volume with some excellent suggestions on 

 the professional studies of Indian forest officers at home on leave. 

 Selections from this volume might with advantage be reproduced 

 in our Transactions. The following passage relating to Scotch fir 

 forests in Germany I may quote by way of example : — 



" In the plains of north-east Germany, Hanover, Brandenburg, 

 Saxony, the extensive Scotch fir forests, which are mainly re- 

 generated by sowing and planting, should be visited. Insects 

 have been the great difficulty in many of these tracts, and in some 

 cases an attempt has on that account been made to revert to 

 natural regeneration. In the eastern provinces of Prussia forest 

 fires have been most destructive. The Scotch fir forests of Eran- 

 conia (Steigerwald, Hauptsmoor, near Bamberg) are principally 

 maintained by self-sown seedlings. In these forests the successful 

 employment of an underwood of beech to improve the growth 

 of the Scotch fir should be noticed. In the forest tracts round 

 Kloster Ebrach the residts of this system are seen in the shape of 



