208 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



under forests in Germany is as twenty-six or thereabout 

 against two in Britain, reckoning density, and that German 

 forests find well-paid posts for a whole army of officers, the 

 relation of schools to forestry there will be better understood. 

 The German forester has an important and well-defined charge, 

 a good salary and position, and a number of privileges. The 

 young German forestry candidate is also encouraged to go 

 forward. After he has passed his two principal examinations 

 the first to test his theoretical knowledge of forestry, and 

 the second to test his ability to apply what he has learned and 

 capability for employment as a forester he is employed in 

 some probationary work, for which he receives a certain 

 weekly or daily allowance, and may look forward to a per- 

 manent post within a reasonable period. The British forester 

 has not these advantages, nor anything like them, and to 

 expect him to seek a German forestry education for a situation 

 in England or Scotland is absurd. It is not worth his while. 

 In Germany it is the men who are to work in the forests that 

 go to school, and it should be the same in this country when 

 we possess schools of the right kind. If by some kind of 

 reorganisation the forester's charge in our own country could 

 be extended so as to include whole districts, better men 

 would soon be found. Colonel Pearson, of the Indian forests, 

 in his evidence before the Select Committee on Forestry, said 

 that, " at present there is no field in Great Britain in which 

 an educated forest officer, such as we find on the Continent, 

 might gain a livelihood." The Indian Forest Department 

 is the field that attracts men of the better class, and it is 

 difficult to see, while present conditions and uncontrolled 

 private ownership in woods exist in this country, where a 

 better paid class of foresters could find posts. Reorganisa- 

 tion of our woods and forests is wanted first ; and the 

 conviction has to be borne in upon the minds of estate owners 

 that planting for timber might be made remunerative before 

 they will pay high salaries to foresters. As private estates 

 are conducted at present, the only persons worth whose while 

 is is to learn forestry on the higher scale and combine it with 

 their other duties are estate agents, and at present they do 

 not even profess, ias a rule, to understand the business, 

 although the woods usually represent a large portion of the 

 value of an estate, and the most interesting portion of it 

 as well. Carelessness on the part of owners, and indifference 

 on the part of their agents, correctly describes the state of 

 affairs on most estates at present, so far as general manage- 

 ment is concerned. 



