TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 677 



■which prevailed. It was alike meagre in amount and deficient in quality, consist- 

 ing chiefly of the records of empirical practice of men who liud Lad 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 Cooper's Hill 

 there is issuing, more slowly than could be wished, Professor Schlich's excellent 

 'Manual of Forestry,' and from his colleague Professor Fisher we may, 1 believe, 

 aeon expect an important forestry book. You all know Professor 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 Professor 

 Somerville. A most valuable and interesting contribution to forestry literature is 

 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 energj^ 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 begin- 

 ning 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 

 botan}' 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 li:tve now got 

 beyond tbe 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 dissemina- 

 tion 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 intimation 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 States, 

 their many schools and copious literature of forestry, make it remarkable that, 

 apart altogetlier from the economic side, forestry as a subject of study and 

 investigation lias not been long ago introduced in some of our teaching centres. 

 I tliink the Sibthorpian Chair of liural Economy of the University of Oxford was 

 for long the only one through which forestry was recognised as within the sphere 

 of university education. So fiir 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 foresiry shall have 

 its turn, if by that time it has not come about that it is otherwise provided for. 



It was, however, only the necessities of India which, at a comparatively rt'cent 

 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. Cooper's 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 outsiders who may wish to 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 

 oflering the advantages 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 want of intelligent appreciation of scientific forestry 'i 

 Even now all that has resulted from the agitation in favour of more attention 

 being given to this subject is — a lectureship 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 



