NATIONAL AFFORESTATION 



through, and this will require five years, at 

 least, to be spent in the woodlands. As 

 suggested to the Board of Agriculture, four 

 schools of forestry might be initiated in con- 

 nection with the afforesting of waste lands- 

 one in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland 

 each school to be under the charge of a 

 smart, well-educated British forester, whose 

 duty it would be to superintend generally the 

 laying out, fencing, and planting of such 

 grounds as the State had acquired for the 

 purpose, as also, with the aid of an expert, to 

 impart to the assistant-foresters at claj 

 held in the evenings, or at other times, sue] 

 knowledge regarding the various outdoor 

 operations as could not well be taught in the 

 open. Preparatory to entering the State 

 forests each pupil should have served at least 

 three years on an estate where the manage- 

 ment of woodlands was carried out, it, of 

 course, being assumed that he had received 

 a fair education. These assistants would act 

 as foremen, and see that all work sketched 

 out by the head-forester was properly carried 

 114 



