;76 



NATURE 



[August i6, 1S94 



effect in showing the need there is for more. In one way the 

 teaching of all these bodies is incomplete, and must be imper- 

 fect, inasmuch as they have not the means for practical forestry 

 work. Until this is provided, as I have indicated already, the 

 teaching of forestry cannot be thoroughly carried out. 



But, after all, what has been done in the way of supplying 

 our wants in the way of teaching is nothing to what is required 

 if forestry is to be adequately taught in Britain. Dr. Nisbet, 

 who in his book already mentioned, has had the last say oil this 

 question, boldly states the requirements at six forestry ch.iirs in 

 universities, and four schools of practical sylviculture in the 

 vicinity of forests. I do not think he puts the needs one whit 

 too high. I should be even disposed to add to them, bec.iuse I 

 note he has omitted to take into account the claim of Wales, 

 whence there has recently been a request for the establishment 

 of forestry teaching. 



But there are two questions strictly pertinent to this demand, 

 which need answering if the proposals are to be brought within 

 the sphefe of practicability — firstly, whence are the funds to be 

 obtained for this organisation ; and, secondly, where are we to 

 get the teachers ? 



Dr. Nisbet puts his hand in the Treasury pocket for the 

 money — some hve thousand pounds per annum — required by 

 his scheme. I do not think many of us will be so sanguine as 

 to expect the whole financial aid could be directly obtained 

 in this way. Bat it may be, I think, of significance in regard 

 to this to consider the sources from which money has been forth- 

 coming for what has already been done. The Government, 

 through the Board of Agriculture, has given most, the re- 

 mainder has come from the County Councils and from private 

 contributions. 



There is no reason to suppose that the Board of Agricitlture 

 will be less willing in the future than it has been to aid in the 

 establishing of forestry teaching in suitable centre-; ; but its 

 support from the limited funds — eight thousand pounds — at its 

 disposal for educational purposes, is always given as a grant in 

 aid, and is contingent upon evidence of local effort towards the 

 end desired, which we must therefore look to in the first 

 instance. 



It is of no use to speculate upon the prospects of private 

 munificence providing equipment in any centre. We may hope 

 for it, but I do not think limes are such as to leal us to expect 

 large pecuniary aid from landowners. After vigorous effjrt 

 amongst them, extending over some years, to secure an endow- 

 ment for a chair of forestry in E linburgh, a sum a little over 

 two thousand pounds is all that has been raised. 



But forestry is one of those subjects to the teaching of which 

 we may be more sanguine of support from County Councils. 

 It will always be a matter of regret to scientific men, and those 

 interested in the industrial progress of the country, that the 

 grand opportunity furnished by the fund dealt with un ler the 

 Local Taxation Act (1890) was not taken more advantage of 

 by the Government of the day. Distributed, even in part, 

 through representative educational institutions, it could have 

 provided equipment for technical education of the highest 

 kind beyonfl our dreams. Thrown at the heads of the County 

 Councils, before these bodies had had time to settle to their 

 prescribed work, there has been, in the opinion of those well 

 qualified to judge, no little waste. Vou could not create all 

 at once the machinery requisite for the mist efficacious expen- 

 diture of half a million of money on technical teaching. Much 

 of the work done by these bodies is admiralile. It is indeed 

 iurprising in the whole circumstances how efficiently technical 

 instruction has been carried out, and no doubt it will improve. 

 But it had a most extravagant start. It is difficult to trace, in 

 the general returns of the technical education undertaken by the 

 County Councils, the details of their work, and 1 have not been 

 able to discover how far forestry has lieen treated as a subject 

 of instruction. It ha^ not, I think, been often included. But 

 the example of Northumberland and Durham in respect of the 

 Newcastle chair is one that gives encouragement for thinking 

 that if the due importance of forestry to the community were 

 made clear. County Councils, in districts favourable for forestry 

 ant) its concomitant industries, might come forward with some 

 of the financial lupport needed for thr provision of the educa- 

 tional equipment. 



It appear* to me that whilst we must obtain from the Govcin- 

 ment the institution of sylvicultural areas for practical instruction, 

 our best chance of success in acquiring the necessary endowment 

 for the rest of the teaching liei in the line of combination be- 



NO. I 294, VOL. 50] 



tween the Board of .\griculture and the County Councils, with, 

 it may be, aid from private benefactors. But if we were to 

 draw financial support from County Councils, or from private 

 sources, we must as a first step towards this make known, more 

 thoroughly than it is, the nature of the national interests in- 

 volved. We must disabuse landowners, land agents, and 

 practical foresters of the notion that forestry consists in the 

 random sticking in of trees, which anyone, no matter how 

 unskilled, may accomplish. We must bring home to the 

 people's minds that in science is to be found the only sure 

 guide to proper timbergrowing, and that scientifically managed 

 forests are alike a profit to the producer, a benefit to the com- 

 munity of the region in which they are reared, and a source of 

 national wealth. Once we have got so far as to create this 

 opinion, the funds for as extended a scheme of forestry educa- 

 tion as may be necessary will, I venture to think, be forth- 

 coming. 



There is still the other question to answer — Whence are the 

 teachers to come ? This is, I think, fundamental. For, given 

 a competent teacher, he will soon find opportunity for teaching. 

 If to-morrow the whole or even a half of the chairs suggested 

 by Dr. Xisbet as essential were founded, how should we meet 

 the demand for men to fill them? We might, of course, draw 

 upon the Indian Forest Service, but I do not know where you 

 would find teachers in Britain. But if there is no prospect of 

 such immediate requirement of teachers, that does not make 

 the fact of their deficiency of any less moment. There is 

 surely something wrong when men capable of giving scientific 

 instruction in so important a practical subject are so scarce. 



This is how it touches us botanists, and upon our shoulders 

 I am disposed to throw the blame for the present outlook. We 

 do not seem to have realised, except in relation to medicine, 

 that modern botany has an outlet. Perhaps it has been the in- 

 fluence of medicine that has engendered this. We find chemists 

 and physicists devoting their science to the furtherance of prac- 

 tical aims. Zoologists have applied theirs to the elucidation of 

 problems bearing on the fishery industry, and we see in that 

 monument to the ability and energy of Prof. Ray Lankester, 

 the marine biological laboratory at Plymouth, an experimental 

 station which, while it contributes to the nation's prosperity, 

 serves at the same time as a home of pure research. But where 

 is the practical outcome of modern botany ? I must not over- 

 look such brilliant work as that of Marshall Ward, full of pur- 

 pose, and significant as it is to many large industries, nor that 

 of Oliver in its beatings on horticulture. But it does seem to 

 me that the general trend of botanical work in Britain is not 

 utilitarian. Perhaps as good an illustr.ilion as could be given 

 of the slight practical importance attached by the lay mind 

 nowadays to botany is the f.icl ihat the Scottish Universities 

 Commissioners have made it — though 1 must add it is bracketed 

 with zoology — optional with mathematics for the degree in 

 agriculture ! 



It is matter of history that its utilitarian side gave the first 

 impetus to the scientific study of botany. The plant-world, as 

 the source of products of economic value and drugs, attracted 

 attention, and out of this grew, by natural ilevelo|>ment, the 

 systematic study of plants. The whole teaching of botany was 

 at the first, and continued for long to be, systematic and 

 economic, and it was from this point of view that, the herbalist 

 having become the physician, botany became so essential .-» 

 branch of medical study. It is noteworthy that as an early 

 practical outcome of the study came the establishment of botanic 

 gardens, which, at their institution, were essentially what wc 

 would now style experimental stations, and conlrilinlud ma- 

 terially to the introduction and distribution of medicinal ami 

 economic pLints, and to the trial of their products. If they 

 are now in many instances simply appendages of tcachmg 

 establishments, or mere pleasure-grounds, we .at least in Britain 

 are fortunate in possessing an unrivalled institution in the Royal 

 G.irdens at Kew, which still maintains, and under its present 

 able Director has enormously developed, the ol<l tradition of 

 botanic gardens as a centre in our vast empire, through which 

 botany renders scientific service to our national progress. 



In Britain, consequent jierhaps on our colonial aiid over-sea 

 possessions, the systematic side of botany continued pre- 

 dominant long after morphological and physiological work had 

 absorbed the attention of the majority of workers ami made 

 progress on the continent. Not Ihat we were wanting in a 

 share of such works, only it was overshadowed by the prevalent 

 taxonomy, which in the hands of many no longer bore that 



