194 ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 6, 1877. 



urging on all landed proprietors interested in rearing wood- 

 lands, and on all foresters employed in that most interesting 

 pursuit, to become members of the Society, and to assist in the 

 only way at present open to them in the good work of pro- 

 moting and extending the knowledge and practice of Arboriculture 

 in the kingdom. It is not for me, who have come so recently 

 among you, to point out all the advantages which arise from such 

 a society as this. The printed Transactions which now extend 

 over a number of years are sufficient to prove this, and to show 

 what has been and is being accomplished among us. I have, as 

 far as my time allowed, been looking over these Transactions, and 

 I cannot fail to observe the number and usefulness of the articles 

 contributed. There is scarcely a point of interest relating to the 

 art of forestry which has not been touched upon ; and while many 

 of the papers are most valuable contributions to the literature of 

 Arboriculture, there are none from which something may not be 

 learned and in which valuable suggestions are not made. The 

 Society effects this good— which to my mind is most valuable, 

 and which, as years go on, will become more and more so — 

 it induces practical foresters, men actually and every day en- 

 gaged in the work, to come forward and put in writing 

 their own practical experience. This is valuable in many ways, 

 for it affords to those who are learning the art of forestry, 

 and to those who are inquiring as to the best modes of con- 

 ducting actual operations in planting, the most sensible and 

 practical suggestions as to how work should be cai-ried on, and it 

 assists in making more accurate and more exact the knowledge 

 which has been acquired through years of hard work and prac- 

 tical experience by those who contribute. Bacon says in his 

 " Essays," " Reading maketh a full man ; conference or speak- 

 ing, a ready man ; writing, an exact man ; " and the quality of 

 exactness is one that is rare, very rare, even among the more 

 highly educated, and ought especially to be cultivated among those 

 who have fewer opportunities of study, and whose life is passed in 

 activity out of doors. It is, of all qualities, the most valuable to a 

 man, whatever may be the nature of the work in which he is 

 engaged ; and the fact of putting in actual writing the experi- 

 ences of everyday life makes a man sure and safe as to the know- 

 ledge that he has already acquired, and enables him with much 

 greater confidence in himself, and much greater chance of interest- 

 ing and instructing others, to go forward with that work of self- 



