August i6, 1894] 



NA TURE 



375 



-example of Sir John Lawes in his work for agriculture ; and 

 everyone interested in forestry must hope this may be so. But 

 ■when the State has already in its hands the means through 

 which a large national industry can be fostered, it is surely 

 incumbent on it to utilise them for the purpose. And mark 

 you, in asking for this, one does not make a large demand 

 upon the Treasury. The whole could be done at no ultimate 

 cost, for the profits from the areas could unquestionably more 

 than repay any outlay incurred upon them. 



The true solution of the forestry question in Britain is to be 

 found in the diffusion of accurate knowledge of forest science. 

 The landowner has to be convinced that through scientific 

 forestry a sound and profitable investment for his capital is to 

 fee found in woodlands ; the factor or land agent must be 

 instructed in the scientific principles of tree-growing for profit 

 to enable him to secure a steady income to the landowner from 

 his invested capital ; and the working forester has to be taught 

 methods of cultivation based upon science, by which his faith 

 in traditional practice, when it is, as is so often the case, un- 

 scientific, may be dispelled. It is through education alone that 

 we can arrive at improved forestry. 



This was recognised by the Select Committee upon Forestry 

 of the House of Commons in its report in 1SS7, which performed 

 a very valuable service by its exposure of the prevalent ignorance 

 of scientific forestry and of well-known facts of tree-cultivation 

 amongst those professedly engaged in its practice and study- — 

 an ignorance the continued existence of which manifests itself 

 in some of the writings in current periodicals. The remedy it 

 suggested of a State Forest Board, including representatives of 

 science and of bodies interested in forestry, charged with the 

 superintendence of the formation of forest schools and the pre- 

 paration of forest literature, was superseded by the later in- 

 stitution of the Board of Agriculture, in which were absorbed 

 such functions in regard to forestry as the Government of the 

 ■day accepted. We are so accustomed to anomalies in our ad- 

 ministrative system that the discovery of an additional one 

 hardly surprises us. Yet it is difficult to understand why it is 

 that a Board which deals with subjects so essentially based on 

 science as does the Board of Agriculture should not have on its 

 staff scientific men representative of the fields of science within 

 its purview. But I do not know that either agriculture or 

 forestry is so represented. It seems odd that this Board should 

 be dependent for scientific advice upon outsiders, and now that 

 it proposes to undertake the responsibility of the publication of 

 a journal which, I take it, will be a means for the circulation 

 of accurate information upon scientific questions, I do not see 

 how its functions can be adequately performed without scientific 

 help from within. No one of us would expect to see, either to- 

 day or to-morrow, in this country a Board of Agriculture with 

 an organisation like that of the similar department in the United 

 States, which excites our admiration by the excellence of the 

 practical information it circulates. But there is a wide interval 

 between the completeness of the American department and the 

 incompleteness of ours ; and if I may make another suggestion 

 to the President of the Board of Agriculture, I would ask him 

 to consider whether it would not strengthen the Board in the 

 discharge of its rapidly growing functions if it had competent 

 scientific advisers upon its staff. Such a man for forestry would. 

 I believe, do much for "the increase of sound technical 

 knowledge " in Britain, and promote to no little extent its 

 interests. 



Since 1S87 we have made some adv.inces along the lines of 

 improved literature and of teaching pointed out by the Select 

 Committee as those by which reform could be accomplished. 



If one looks at the literature available up to a recent period 

 to anyone desirous of learning something about forestry, one 

 need feel little surprise at the ignorance which prevailed. It 

 was alike meagre in amount and deficient in quality, consisting 

 chiefly of the records of empirical practice of men who had 

 had no scientific training. It is satisfactory to note that these 

 are now being replaced by works having some pretension to 

 scientific method and accuracy. From Coopers Hill there is 

 issuing, more slowly than could be wished, Prof. Schlich's 

 excellent " Manual of Forestry," and from his colleague 

 Prof. Fisher we may, I believe, soon expect an important 

 forestry book. You all know Prof. Marshall Ward's lucid 

 little books on timber and plant-diseases, and we are promised 

 immediately, under his editorship, a translation of Hartig's 

 "Diseases of Trees," by Prof. Somerville. A most valu- 

 able and interesting contribution to forestry literature is 



NO. I2Q4, VOL .so] 



the book by Dr. Nisbet, recently issued from the Clarendon 

 Press, containing the lectures he delivered in the University of 

 Oxford during the past year ; and to his marvellous energy we 

 shall owe the new edition of "Brown's Forester," which is 

 shortly to appear, and an English version of Hartig's "Text- 

 Book " for foresters. All this activity shows an increasing 

 interest in forestry, but it is only the beginning of a movement 

 to make up for the preceding dearth. Botanists are greatly 

 indebted to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press — and it is 

 fitting I should here acknowledge the obligation — for the 

 splendid series of standard foreign works on botany they 

 have brought within the reach of English-speaking students, 

 and which have done so much for the progress of botany 

 in Britain. If we have now got beyond the stage of 

 dependence in pure botany, we are far from it in scientific 

 forestry, and I would hope that the Clarendon Press will add 

 to its botanical series some of the standard foreign forestry 

 books, and thus aid in the dissemination of the knowledge so 

 essential to progress in the subject. 



I must not omit to refer here to the excellent opportunity 

 that is afforded for the circulation of scientific information by 

 the new journal of the Board of Agriculture, of which intima- 

 tion has recently been made, and it is to be hoped that forestry 

 will find a place in it side by side with agriculture. 



The attention paid to the teaching and study of forestry by 

 continental Slates, their many schools and copious literature of 

 forestry, make it remarkable that, apart altogether from the 

 economic side, forestry as a subject of study and investigation 

 has not been long ago introduced in some of our teaching 

 centres. I think the Sibthorpian Chair of Rural Economy of 

 the University of Oxford was for long the only one through 

 which forestry was recognised as within the sphere of Univer- 

 sity education. So far the limited tenure of this chair, in its 

 new dress, has been held by agriculturists — in their line the 

 most distinguished men ; but I should like to think that one 

 may look forward to a time when forestry shall have its turn, if 

 by that time it has not come about that it is otherwise pro- 

 vided for. 



It was, however, only the necessities of India 'A'hich, at a 

 comparatively recent date, led to the first starting of forestry 

 teaching in Britain, and then only at the cost of India, and 

 for those destined to serve there as foresters. Coopers Hill 

 College, the outcome of these, with its excellent equipment — 

 including now, I believe, a slice of Windsor Forest for purposes 

 of practical work — possesses the elements of a successful forestry 

 school, and it has within recent years opened its doors to out- 

 siders who may wish !o learn forestry. But, so far as I am aware, 

 it does not draw the young landowners of the country as it 

 should do. Possibly the expense of the special education, 

 which equals that of the universities without offering the advan- 

 tages in other directions they afford, may be deterrent ; but I 

 am inclined to think that if the authorities made the fact better 

 known that men other than foresters for India are admitted to 

 the college, more would avail themselves of the opportunity. 



Beyond this and some slight notice of forestry at agricultural 

 colleges, there have been no facilities for forestry-teaching in 

 Britain until within the last half-dozen years. I leave out of 

 reckoning mere examining boards. Can we wonder, then, that 

 there is a general w.ant of intelligent appreciation of scientific 

 forestry? Even now all that has resulted from the agitation in 

 favour of more attention being given to this subject is — a lecture- 

 ship on forestry in the University of Edinburgh, supported 

 partly by the Board of Agriculture and partly by an endowment 

 from subscriptions among landowners and others (and, I may 

 mention here, forestry is now included as an optional subject in 

 the university curriculum for an agricultural degree) ; a chair, 

 or part of one, in the Royal College of Science at Newcastle, 

 founded cotijointly by the Board of .\griculture and the 

 County Council ; a course of instruction in science for practical 

 foresters in the Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, maintained 

 by the Board of Agriculture ; and a lecture course on forestry 

 in the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical Institute, simi- 

 larly provided for. I must not omit to mention, too, the begin- 

 ning, just made, by the Surveyors' Instituie of the formation of 

 a forestry museum in London, which should have an important 

 educative influence. Little though it is, I think there is occasion 

 for congratulation that even so much has been done to provide 

 instruction, and I would have you note that in this education 

 the difieient classes concerned with forestry are all recognised. 

 Valuable as the teaching so being given is, it must have an 



