20 MEASURES TO BE TAKEN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



difficult}' in the beginning, and a start must be made with 

 species which are little exacting. "When a suitable forest crop 

 has once more been established on the areas, the producing 

 power of the land will increase in the same degree as organic 

 matter accumulates in the soil, and then more exacting species 

 can be introduced as a second crop. The loss of increment in 

 the beginning is a penalty which we shall have to pay for 

 neglect in the past. 



What we require are improved sylvicultural methods, and 

 the late Forestry Committee pleaded, in the first instance, 

 for improved instruction in forestry. I am happy to say that 

 this recommendation has alread} 7 borne fruit. A special 

 forestry branch has just been added to the Royal Agricultural 

 College at Cirencester ; a similar branch is about to be added 

 to the Kent and Sussex Agricultural College at Wye ; both 

 institutions are for the instruction of landed proprietors or 

 their sons, or young men preparing for the position of estate 

 managers. A forest school for woodmen has just been started 

 by the Commissioners of Woods in the Forest of Dean. This 

 step is likely to be of great importance. It provides for the 

 training of a class of men, who are wanted, not only for the 

 Crown Woods, but also by private proprietors who own a 

 limited area of woodlands. The instructor in charge, Mr. C. 0. 

 Hanson, one of my own pupils, has made a fair start under 

 the supervision of the Deputy Surveyor, Forest of Dean, and 

 it is to be hoped that the school will prosper. The students, 

 who are of the woodman class, have theoretical instruction on 

 two days a week, and they work in the forest the remaining 

 four days. 



Instruction in forestry has for a series of years been given 

 at the University of Edinburgh, and there is every prospect 

 of its being considerably enlarged. Further measures in the 

 same direction will, no doubt, follow, especially if the State 

 authorities see their way towards helping a little more than 

 has been done in the past. I shall presently again refer to 

 this subject. 



