CHAPTER III. 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE TO A SCHOOL OF FORESTRY, OF 



SCHOLASTIC SURROUNDINGS, AND OF ADJACENT 



FORESTS. 



IN discussing in a preceding chapter the question of an 

 appropriate site for a British National School of Forestry, 

 I have adverted [ante p. 174] to the practicability of 

 securing by feu, property in the immediate vicinity of 

 Edinburgh, on which might be created a forest, in- the 

 creation and subsequent management of which students 

 might hereafter be exercised in all that pertains to 

 practical forestry, if Edinburgh should be selected as the 

 site of such a School of Forestry. 



This matter demands further consideration in connec- 

 tion with the subject of the immediately preceding 

 chapter that of expense. Is such a forest really necessary 

 to the efficient teaching of forestry and forest science ? 

 Many will say yes ; beyond all doubt or question it is. 

 That advantage might be derived from the creation of 

 such a forest may be freely admitted ; and that thus the 

 efficiency of the teaching might be increased need not 

 be denied, but the expense would be considerable, and I 

 do not consider it necessary that that expense 

 should be incurred. It may be asked, Is it not 

 necessary to the efficiency of a School of Forestry to have 

 adjacent to it a forest, in which the students may be 

 exercised in various departments of forest work ? There 

 prevails in Britain an opinion that it is. Rut [ consider this 

 a prejudice, by which I mean an opinion formed a priori, 

 and not the result of observation ; and one which has 

 retarded the establishment of a School of Forestry in 

 Britain, by suggestions of an enormous expenditure for 

 which it would be difficult to provide. 



