TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. G79 



nical teaching. Much of the work done by these todies is admirable. It is indeed 

 surprising' in the whole circumstances how efficiently technical instruction has been 

 carried out, and no doubt it will improve. Rut it had a most extravairant 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 I have not bei'n able to 

 discover how far forestry has been treated as a subject of instruction. It has not, 

 1 think, been often included. But the example of Northumberland and Durham 

 in respect of the Newcastle chair is one that gives encouragement for thinlcinir that, 

 if the due importance of forestry to the community were made clear. County 

 Councils, in districts favourable for forestry and its concomitant industries, miglit 

 come forward with some of the financial support needed for the provision of the 

 educational equipment. 



It appears to me that whilst we must obtain from the Government the institu- 

 tion of sylvicultural areas for practical instruction, our best chance of success in 

 acquiring the necessary endowment for the rest of the teaching lies in the line of 

 combination between the Board of Agriculture 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 

 involved. We must disabuse landowners, land agents, and practical foresters of 

 the notion that forestrj^ consists in the random sticking in of trees, which anyone, 

 no matter bow 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 timber-growing, 

 and that scientifically managed forests are alike a profit to the producer, a benefit 

 to the community 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 education as may be necessary will, I venture to 

 think, be forthcoming. 



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. Nisbet as essential were founded, how .should we meet the demand 

 for men to fill them ? We might, of course, draw upon the Indian Forest Ser- 

 vice, 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 liave realised, except 

 in relation to medicine, that modern botany has an outlet. Perhaps it has been 

 the influence of medicine that has engendered this. We find chemists and 

 phy.sicists devoting their science to the furtherance of practical 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 Professor 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 overlook such brilliant work as that of Marshall Ward, full of purpose, and 

 significant as it is to many large industries, nor that of Oliver in its bearings on 

 horticulture. But it does seem to me that the general trend of botanical work in 

 Britain is not utilitarian. Perhaps as good an illustration as could be given of the 

 slight practical importance attached by the lay mind nowadays to botany is the 

 fact that the Scottish Universities Commissioners have made it* — though I 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 studj' of botany. The plant-world, as the source of products of economic 

 value and drugs, attracted attention, and out of this grew, by natural development, 



