NA TURE 



193 



THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1887. 



FORESTRY. 



School oj Forestry in Germany, with Addenda relating 

 to a desiderated British National School of Forest?y. 

 By John Croumbie Brown, LL.D. (Edinburgh : OHver 

 and Boyd ; London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1887.) 



" O ILVER and gold have I not ; but what I have I am 

 ^ prepared to give." This is what the author tells 

 us towards the end of the present volume, and there can 

 be no doubt that he has fully acted up to his promise. 

 He has now presented the public with what appears to 

 be the fifteenth volume on subjects of forestry, and he 

 offers to publish some thirty additional volumes if the 

 necessary inducement is held out. Surely Dr. Brown 

 must be extremely philanthropic, or else the publishing 

 of books is considerably cheaper than we have so far 

 believed it to be. These works, published and unpub- 

 lished, deal with forest subjects in almost every known 

 country of the earth, and we wonder how Dr. Brown has 

 managed to collect all the information. The above- 

 mentioned offer seems to have been made in succession 

 to a variety of bodies, but none of them have availed 

 themselves of it, and the world at large must, for the 

 present, be satisfied with the information contained in the 

 fifteen volumes which have so far passed through the 

 press. That, however, extends over a considerable 

 range, including information regarding forests and schools 

 of forestry in Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Russia, 

 and the Cape ; on modern forest economy ; the effects of 

 forests on humidity of climate ; hydrology of South 

 Africa, &c., &c. Now, it appears to us either that Dr. 

 Brown's works are deficient in interest, or that his 

 countrj'men are very ungrateful in not availing them- 

 selves of his handsome offer. If we follow the dictates of 

 common-sense, we must, it seems, decide in favour of the 

 former alternative. 



We hear occasionally of a Parliamentary Committee 

 which considers " whether, by the establishment of a 

 forest school, or otherwise, our woodlands could be rendered 

 more remunerative " ; or a feeble effort is made to start a 

 National British Forest School in Edinburgh ; or a lan- 

 guishing controversy turns up, whether the junior officers 

 of the Indian Forest Department should be educated in 

 France, Germany, or at home. But on the whole these 

 matters do not excite much curiosity or interest. Parlia- 

 mentary Committees on the subject die away without 

 making any proposals beyond suggesting the re-appoint- 

 ment of a similar Committee in the next Parliament, 

 which event may come to pass if members have no bigger 

 game to hunt ; Edinburgh is still without its forest 

 school, and a forestry branch has actually been added to 

 the Royal Indian Engineering College a>t Cooper's Hill, 

 for the education of Indian forest officers, without many 

 p>eopIe being aware of the fact. The explanation of all 

 this indifference is that even the perseverance of Dr. 

 Brown has not yet succeeded in convincing Englishmen 

 of the importance of afforestation. The mere fact that it 

 is of importance in various Continental countries and in 

 several British dependencies is not sufficient to show that 

 Vol. XXXVI. — No. 922. 



the same holds good in these islands, and it will be as 

 well to say something more on this subject. 



Forests are, in the economy of Nature and of man, 

 of direct and indirect value : the former through their 

 products, and the latter through their influence upon 

 climate, the regulation of the water-supply, the healthi- 

 ness of a country, and allied phenomena. These islands 

 are rich in iron ore, coal, and peat, wherewith to 

 produce more iron than is required by the country, 

 and to render the question of firewood of very subordinate 

 importance. What is more, they are so situated that the 

 importation of wood and other forest-produce is com- 

 paratively easy and cheap, owing to their sea-bound 

 position, and a multitude of railways and other means of 

 communication scattered over the country. At any rate, 

 we have received, so far, as much timber as we require, 

 and at a lower rate than it has been possible to produce 

 it at home. Whether this state of things will last for 

 ever is a different question ; but it rests with us to 

 initiate measures in our dependencies (such as Canada) 

 which will secure us against a timber famine as long as- 

 the British Navy rules the sea. After all, the whole 

 question turns on this point, and the decline of the 

 British Navy would raise other issues of such immense 

 importance, that the question of the future timber-supply 

 of this country may well be added without producing a 

 nightmare in even the most imaginative mind. 



Again, in respect of the indirect effects of forests. 

 Englishmen may rest assured that the absence of wood- 

 lands will not ruin their country. The climate and 

 rainfall of these islands are principally governed by 

 their geographical position. Strong moist air-currents 

 come to us direct from the sea, and, compared with 

 their effects, those of forests, even if 20 per cent, of 

 the total area of the United Kingdom were covered with 

 them, would be found comparatively small. Nor need 

 we cry for forests on account of the general regulation of 

 moisture ; because, thanks to an ample rainfall and a 

 comparatively moist state of the atmosphere, our waste 

 lands are generally covered with heath, mosses, and 

 other growth, which act as powerful retainers of moisture. 

 To add a crop of trees to these would make comparatively 

 Httle difference, especially as afforestation would, in many 

 cases, have to be accompanied by the draining of the 

 soil. 



In some respects, however, an increase of our wood- 

 lands might be highly beneficial. They would afford 

 protection not only to cattle and birds (the latter being 

 the great destroyers of noxious insects), but also to agri- 

 cultural lands which are at present exposed to strong sea 

 breezes. A judicious distribution of woodlands along the 

 coasts (especially the western) of these islands would no 

 doubt be followed by beneficial results in this respect. 

 Again, our waste lands (occupying upwards of 40,000 

 square miles, equal to 34 per cent of the total area), 

 might be made more remunerative than they are at present, 

 and their afforestation would provide a very considerable 

 amount of work, not only by the creation and subsequent 

 management and working of the forests, but also by the 

 springing up of a variety of industries dependent on the 

 existence and sustained yield of woodlands. We take 

 this opportunity to recommend the subject to the careful 

 attention of those who are about to legislate once more on 



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