530 



NA TURE 



[April ^, 1888 



whose lives will be largely spent in the creating, planting, 

 preserving, and using of forest and other trees. Obviously, 

 such a course must comprise several branches of teaching, 

 the one thing common to all being that they bear upon 

 the practical needs of the future forester. That the same 

 training applies to a planter or estate-manager needs no 

 remark, and portions of the course would be suited for 

 others engaged in work in woodlands, and in the 

 colonies, &c. The full course, as at present set forth in 

 the syllabus of studies, is as follows. 



The student begins work in September, and at- 

 tends lectures regularly during two academical years. 

 In engineering, he is taught the principles of road- 

 making, and the building of forest bridges and other 

 structures ; he is also instructed in the practice and theory 

 of surveying under the care of the Professor of Surveying. 

 In his first year he studies for two terms under the 

 Instructor in Geometrical Drawing, and in his second 

 year receives lessons in the keeping of accounts. To 

 these subjects may be added freehand drawing, and a 

 modern language. In addition to these more technical 

 subjects, the student attends certain short courses in 

 mathematics and in applied mathematics, under the 

 Professors of these sciences; he also studies physics — 

 in lectures, as well as in the laboratory — entomology, and 

 geology. A short course on organic chemistry is now 

 being commenced. 1 



The rest of his work consists in the special training as a 

 forester, and it may safely be stated that there is no other 

 centre in the Empire where so thorough and excellently 

 designed a curriculum for a forester or planter can be 

 obtained. The two subjects of forestry and botany are 

 under the care of separate Professoi's. Dr. Schlich 

 lectures on forestry, dividing his subject as follows ; — In 

 the first year he deals with the various soils, climates, and 

 the regulating effects of forests on these ; sylviculture, 

 artificial and natural woods ; the tending, thinning, 

 pruning, &c. ; the protection of forests against man and 

 other animals, and especiallwinsects, and against injurious 

 plants, climatic influences, iXc. During the second year 

 the student is instructed in the utilization of forests ; the 

 technical qualities of woods ; the felling, shaping, trans- 

 portation, &c., of timber ; the utilization of minor forest 

 produce ; the preservation of wood ; sawmills ; charcoal, &c. 

 He then passes to the study of working plans, and 

 especially the arrangement of cuttings ; surveying and 

 mapping forests ; measurement and determination of ages 

 of trees and forests ; and the methods of regulating the 

 yield of forests. The final course of lectures is on forest 

 law. In addition to the lectures, the students also make 

 occasional excursions, under the direction of Dr. Schlich ; 

 the neighbourhood of Windsor Forest facilitating this 

 important object, and enabling the Professor of Forestry 

 to make his teaching thoroughly practical. 



In botany, under the management of Prof. Marshall 

 Ward, the students are instructed by means of lectures,'and 

 practical work in the laboratory and in the fields and woods 

 of the neighbourhood. The course in botany is designed to 

 train foresters, not technical botanists : its aim is through- 

 out practical, and directed to teaching the students exact 

 and thorough knowledge of the life-phenomena of the trees 

 and plants which it will be their duty to rear, and take care 

 of, and utilize in the future. Commencing- with a short 



course of thoroughly practical instruction in the elemen- 

 tary biology of plants selected as illustrative types of the 

 vegetable kingdom, the young student is taught the use 

 of the microscope and how to apply it practically in 

 examining the tissues of plants. He is then instructel in 

 the organography and anatomy of plants, learning (not 

 only in lectures, but also in the laboratory and in the 

 field) what the organs of plants are, and what they do ; so 

 that roots, stems, leaves, buds, bulbs, tubers, tendrils, 

 thorns, &c., become to him not mere abstractions, but 

 objects on which his attention will be continually fixed as 

 active parts of plants. The study of cells and their con- 

 tents, of epidermis and stomata, of vascular bundles and 

 other tissues — of wood, bark, cambium, and so forth — is 

 carried on thoroughly, not only that the forester may know 

 the principles by which to classify and recognize timbers 

 and forest products, and learn their uses, but also that he 

 may understand what these various parts of the plants do 

 in nature : how heart-wood is formed, how the timber 

 grows and may be improved, how wounds may be healed 

 over, how the roots take up substances from the soil, and 

 how the plant makes use of them, and so forth. The 

 student concludes his first year's study in botany (in the 

 early summer) by familiarizing himself with the names 

 and systematic position of the plants in the neighbouring 

 fields and woods, especial attention being paid to the 

 important trees and shrubs, and their relations to the 

 forest flora of India. 



During his second year, the student is instructed in the 

 physiology of plants- how they feed, respire, and 

 chemically change substances in their interior ; how they 

 grow, and are affected by light, gravitation, temperature^ 

 moisture, &c. ; how they are reproduced, hybridized, and 

 so on ; the effects of various agents in the production of 

 wood, in influencing the fertility, and so forth. The course 

 is completed by the study of the diseases of plants, and 

 especially of timbers, and how their eftects may be 

 minimized or healed. 



As special features of the greatest importance, it should 

 be mentioned that the senior students pay periodic visits 

 to the magnificent gardens, museums, and plant-houses at 

 Kew, under the direction of Prof Marshall Ward, in order 

 that their knowledge of the important economic plants and 

 their products shall be real. They see the plants growing, 

 learn to familiarize themselves with their peculiarities and 

 habits and uses, and are thus not strangers to them when 

 they land in India. Secondly, the' young foresters are 

 taken abroad, and taught what life in the forest really is. 

 At the completion of their 'first year's studies, they ac- 

 company the Professor of Forestry to Scotland, or to the 

 New Forest, or to the Forest of Dean, as maybe decided 

 for the year ; and at the end of their second year they are 

 taken to the Continent for three or four months' practical 

 work in Germany and France, to examine the systems 

 pursued in the large and more systematically managed 

 forests of those countries, and thus to study the art of 

 forestry in practice under conditions more resembling 

 those met with in the huge and valuable forests of 

 India. 



During the summer of 1887, for instance, the young 

 officers who are now in India were taken to Bavaria, 

 under the direction of Dr. Schlich, accompanied by Prof. 

 Marshall Ward and Mr. Gamble. They visited the 



