324 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



THE FORESTER'S EDUCATION. 



The most suitable form of training which an English 

 forester of the present day should undergo must vary a great 

 deal with his capabilities and aspirations. The man intended 

 to occupy a post on a large estate needs a more thorough and 

 lengthened training than one who simply aims at filling the 

 post of a working woodman or foreman on a small estate, or 

 where the area of woodland is limited. In the former case 

 the aspirant to a forestry appointment must not only have a 

 fairly good general education, but should be more or less 

 conversant with the elements of science and art. Botany, 

 chemistry, geology, zoology, land surveying, and book- 

 keeping, are all more or less important items in the education 

 of such a man, although it is not necessary for him to be 

 an expert in any one of them. But as regards sylviculture, 

 or the planting, tending, and felling of woods and selling of 

 timber, he should claim a considerable degree of expertness 

 before he can consider himself a qualified forester. 



How can these qualifications be best acquired ? We will 

 suppose that the intending forester leaves school at the age 

 of fifteen or sixteen, by which time he is fairly well up in 

 most branches of general education. The first step he should 

 then take must be of a practical nature. Lessons learnt at 

 this stage of his life will leave a more lasting impression 

 upon his mind than those acquired after his mind and 

 muscles have become set, and run more or less in grooves. 

 At this age, hard manual exercise is neither necessary nor 

 desirable. He cannot be considered physically fit for the 

 laborious work connected with the axe or the saw, but there 

 are many branches of wood-work which he can perform with- 

 out affecting his health or overstraining his muscles. 



The first step in his career, therefore, should be that of 

 obtaining a footing on a large and well-wooded estate, if such 

 can be found within reach of his paternal home. On such 

 an estate, nursery-work, planting, cleaning of young planta- 

 tions, the burning of rubbish, the tending of rides, roads, 

 drains, and so on, are continually going on, and a strong 

 healthy lad should be quite capable of taking his share in 

 such work. He may, at this stage of his career, receive 



