Treea — The Character, Structure, Sec. 41 



and if public funds are to be used for aflforestation in Ireland, it 

 is essential that trained men should be provided and tlioir 

 knowledge put to good account Foresters are not empiricists, 

 as some people imagine, but trained professional men. The 

 user of timber little realises how much even the mechanical 

 properties of wood depend upon the control of forests by the 

 well trained forester. He must be trained in various sciences 

 which make up what is really a forestry science. He must be a 

 geologist and soil physicist in order to have some idea as to the 

 sites most suitable for the different tree crops, preventing, for 

 instance, ill adapted species on poor sites. Errors in field crops 

 may be righted in a year, but mistakes made in forest planting 

 or sowing may mean the loss of many years before they can be 

 remedied. He must study forest organization, be able to prepare 

 working plans of forest management and understand thinning. 

 He must look upon the forest as a living community which will 

 respond to his care, for by al)use the forest may even vanish. 

 He must be a plant pathologist and entomologist in order to deal 

 with fungi and insect attacks and the best means of combating 

 them, and to do this he must understand the structure and 

 functions of healthy trees, and the physical and structural 

 qualities of their wood. He must be able to identify those 

 animals, especially birds, that are useful, and those that are 

 injurious. He must, in short, be a man with good business 

 capacity, and a naturalist, while he must not let one trait 

 overshadow the other. 



Every facility in Ireland should be offered to men of talent 

 to train as foresters and agriculturists. Money should no longer 

 be a barrier for those who desire to study, and there should be 

 a greater co-operation between the Universities and the schools, 

 with special facilities for research and experiment in any subject 

 of importance to forestry, both in the field and in the laboratory- 



