326 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



The opportunities which such a course presents of visiting 

 other parts of the country in which woods are numerous or 

 well managed should not be missed, and it may be of 

 advantage if this can be associated with employment in a 

 public nursery, where planting contracts are being undertaken, 

 which afford facilities for travelling about. By working in a 

 nursery he can get an insight into the practical side of raising 

 and propagating trees and shrubs from seeds or cuttings. 

 Such nurseries are also good training-grounds in the direction 

 of forest botany, the extensive collection of trees and shrubs 

 grown within their boundaries, and the necessity of naming 

 or recognising the various species in the course of their 

 working, enabling one to recognise them at a glance — in their 

 young stage, at any rate. 



By the time he is twenty-one or twenty-two he should 

 be capable of taking a foreman's situation on a small estate, 

 or working as an assistant forester on a larger one. The 

 more shifting about and travelling he gets at this period of 

 his life, within reasonable limits, the more likely is he to 

 acquire a general experience which would be difficult to 

 obtain in after-life. Generally speaking, two or three years 

 longer in work of this kind should qualify him for taking a 

 situation as head forester on a moderately sized estate. This 

 may be considered a critical stage in his career, for it is 

 undoubtedly a fact that the class of situation he is able to 

 obtain at the outset will have an important effect on his 

 after-life. If he is fortunate enough to get on an estate 

 where advanced forestry is fostered and encouraged, as far as 

 is possible, all well and good. On such an estate his earlier 

 ideas wUl develop, his qualifications will be increased by the 

 exercise of his mental capabilities, and his enthusiasm, if not 

 actually encouraged, will at anyrate not receive a check, 

 which is often fatal to good work. 



If, on the contrary, he is unfortunate enough to get on 

 an estate the woods of which are simply regarded as game- 

 covers, where the gamekeeper is an autocrat, against whom 

 he dare not lift a finger nor raise a complaint, and where his 

 sole duties consist in the routine work of marking a few 

 trees, keeping clean the roads or rides, and the raising and 

 encouraging of various kinds of rubbish for the sake of game- 



