ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS 233 



and Cambridge and other centres grant a diploma in the 

 subject. It may be regarded as tolerably certain that 

 in the future the possession of a degree or diploma in 

 forestry will be looked upon as an essential qualification 

 for any young woman or man aspiring to obtain an 

 executive post in the management of woods in this 

 country. The candidate would not of course aspire to 

 obtain charge of an area of woods the moment the de- 

 gree had been obtained. He or she would have to 

 serve a probationership as assistant in such a charge, 

 as is the case with any youngster entering one of the 

 State forest services existing in afforested countries in 

 Europe and elsewhere. But the possessor of a degree 

 would aspire to take rank in the superior grades and 

 not commence in the subordinate ones. The curri- 

 culum for a degree is an eminently practical one. In 

 Edinburgh it includes courses in Botany, Zoology, 

 Chemistry, and Natural Philosophy ; and advanced 

 courses in Forest Botany, Mycology, Forest Zoology, 

 Forest Engineering and Surveying, Forest Chemistry 

 and Geology, with Forestry Elementary and Advanced. 

 Three years' work are required to obtain the Edinburgh 

 degree. The purely forestry portion of the curriculum 

 involves two years' work (the second and third years 

 of the course) including practical courses of from six 

 to seven months altogether. The practical courses 

 are designed to give as thorough a training as time 

 permits in the manual part of forest work, both in the 

 nursery and in the woods. This work we have already 

 briefly considered. The student is made to do with 

 his own hands all these manual operations on the 

 principle that a man cannot be fit to give orders unless 



