November io, 1910] 



NATURE 



01 



1904, when the International Electro-technical Commission 

 was called into being. 



It is a very significant circumstance that it has been 



found necessary for this commission to associate itself 



in some branches of its activity with the Engineering 



Standards Committee, and it is not unreasonable to expect 



- such joint international action will gradually extend 



nd the field of electricity. 



FORESTRY EDUCATION: ITS IMPORTANCE 

 AND REQUIREMENTS.' 



I PROPOSE to deal to-day with a brief exposition of 

 the points on which the system of forestry education 

 is based. It will be of interest, I think, first to glance 

 briefly at the training to be obtained at some of the 

 European forestr}- schools, and the facilities provided for 

 giving it. We will then consider some of the things the 

 student in forestry must know, and in this connection 

 glance briefly at a few of the duties which confront the 

 forest officer in the course of his ordinary work in India, 

 concluding, finally, with a review of the present position 

 of the university as regards forestry training and the steps 

 which require to be taken to enable us to send out the 

 class of British forester which is already required in many 

 of our colonies, and for which we trust there will soon be 



I a demand in the British Isles. 



j A few years ago, whilst on furlough from India, I made 

 a tour of some of the forestry colleges and schools of 

 Europe, my object being to study the lines uf>on which 

 the Continental system of education was based and the 



. methods they adopted to combine a proper proportion of 

 practical work with the theoretical instruction given in 

 the class-room. In the course of my tour I visited Ebers- 

 walde, Tharandt, .Aschaffenburg, and Munich Forestry 

 Schools in Germany, the Imperial Forestry Institute at St. 

 Petersburg, the .Agricultural and Forestrv- Institute at 

 Menna, and the fine French Forest School at Nancy. 

 That tour was an education in itself. Briefly, I may sum 

 UD the results of my observations as to the essentials for 

 tuition of forestry thus : — (i) a strong teaching staff ; 

 ^ood museums ; (3) a forest garden and forest educa- 

 tional woods. 



j (i) The Instructional Staff. — The study of forestry so 

 depends on a number of cognate subjects, such as botany, 

 chemistry, geology, zoology, surveying, and forest engineer- 

 ing, &c., that it is essential that the student should be 

 given first-class courses in these matters. Excellent courses 

 are given in all the Continental colleges. There remains 



I the subject of forestry itself, comprising the various 

 branches of silviculture, forest management, forest valua- 

 tion, forest protection, forest utilisation, the law of the 

 forests, and procedure and accounts. To lecture on these 



^ various branches, the best Continental colleges retain the 



( services of at least three men, professors and assistants, 



I many of the former having world-wide reputations in their 



I various branches. These men are also often responsible 



, for their ow-n departments of work in the school forest 



I garden and instructional forests. Their work, as we shall 

 see. falls under two heads. They deliver courses of 



I lectures in the lecture hall, and they conduct the students 



j on the excursions made into the woods to illustrate these 

 lectures, and personally supervise every piece of practical 



! work laid down for the student to do. Since the minimum 

 time in which a student can finish the forestrv course is 



' two years, the professor requires at least one assistant to 

 conduct a part of the lectures, for the junior and senior 



, students are both necessarily attending courses at the same 

 time, and one lot may be in the woods whilst the other 



, IS in the lecture hall. .At the well-known Forestry School 

 at Munich, the home of a number of famous foresters, the 



': various branches of forestrv science are in charge of three 

 professors : Prof. Mayer takes silviculture, forest utilisa- 

 tion, protection, and foreign forestrv; Prof. Endres, forest 



I policy, administration, valuation, and finance; whilst Prof. 



.bchufTer lectures in forest management and working plans. 



I estimation of increment, and yield. Each of the professors 



I 1 From the inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Edinbareh on 

 October 12, by Mr. E. P. Stebbing, Head of the Forestr>- Department of 



NO. 2 141, VOL. 85] 



is responsible for the excursions, laboratory and practical 

 work, of their various courses. 



(2) Good Museums. — The educational value of a good 

 museum is fully recognised. It need not be enlarged upon 

 here. Forestry is peculiarly a science the tuition of which 

 on the one side and assimilation on the other is dependent 

 upon two essentials, a thoroughly efficient system of 

 practical work, and up-to-date, well-planned museums 

 exhibiting in a simple and efficient manner the various 

 details connected with forest work. 



So important is the museum as an adjunct to the 

 efficient teaching of forestry that we find in all the Con- 

 tinental forestry colleges that considerable sums of money 

 have been spent on this part of the equipment alone, and 

 yet in some instances, although with treble the space avail- 

 able here in Edinburgh, the cr>- was often that more room 

 was required. Where all is so good it is difficult to 

 particularise, but as examples of efficiency in this respect 

 I will instance the museums at the Forestry School of 

 Nancy in France, the Imperial Forestry Institute in St. 

 Petersburg, and the Forestry College at the University of 

 Munich. The latter, so far as its building accommodation 

 and museums are concerned, forms the nearest parallel to 

 the position of Edinburgh University, and it will be of 

 interest to glance briefly at the accommodation provided. 



The Forestry College at Munich forms part of the 

 University- of the town and State, and considerable sums 

 of money were spent a few years ago with the object of 

 bringing it thoroughly up-to-date. The buildings devoted 

 to forestry instruction are two in number, both situated in 

 the grounds of the Universit\\ 



The new building, which was opened about the year 

 1900, is the most perfect institution of its kind that man 

 could have devised. The whole of the inside fittings are 

 of wood, highly polished parquet flooring being used 

 throughout, whilst the rooms are handsomely panelled with 

 various kinds of woods. The chemical, mineralbgical, 

 meteorological laboratories, &c.. are in the basement; 

 forest surveying, mathematics, and forest-wood museums 

 on the first floor ; and forest implements, forest products, 

 and models and diseases of woods on the next floor. Each 

 of these branches or departments of science has its own 

 museums, one or two rooms as are required, its own 

 large lecture hall, with professors' and assistants' rooms, 

 laboratories where required, packer's room, &c. 



The space devoted to forestry- pure and simple is ample, 

 no fewer than five large rooms and halls being devoted to 

 the exhibition of the collections alone, those of each branch 

 being exhibited alone. 



This brief description will show that there is little fault 

 to be found with the arrangements and space devoted to 

 this wonderfully efficient forestry college. With such 

 equipment there is ever}- incentive to professor and student 

 alike, not only to work, but to undertake research work 

 in the various branches of forestry. In the Bavarian 

 University the State pays for the upkeep of the major 

 portion of the Forestry Department, and in return the 

 Government reaps the advantages derived from the very 

 important research work and experimental work in which 

 its professors, many with great Eur<^an reputations, 

 spend all their spare time. 



(3) The Forest Garden and Educational Woods. — We 

 come now to our third essential to the proper teaching of 

 forestry', the forest garden and educational woods. It may 

 be said at once that the subject of forestry cannot be 

 taught by the professor or assimilated by the student unless 

 efficient instructional woods are available to which the 

 student can be taken during the lecture course, as well as 

 during the practical course, to be shown eye object-lessons 

 of what he is told. He should be shown in the woods 

 what he is told in the lecture-room, and taught to observe 

 for himself — that first and most important of the lessons 

 of a forester. These first principles of the education of a 

 forestry student are well understood on the Continent, and 

 are adequately provided for. 



I will give two instances out of many. The German 

 Forestry- .Academy of Tharandt is situated not tar from 

 Dresden, in Saxony. The school is provided with a fcest 

 garden and demonstration forest, forming a compact bloc'rc 

 in its immediate vicinity. The forest garden is situated 

 on a hill-side immediatelv behind the school. The hill- 



