260 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
development of the country, and that the attain- 
ment of those ends is dependent to a large extent 
on the personal influence of the forester on the 
people, on his knowledge of their requirements and 
of the systems of silviculture by which they may 
be met, it is evident that the forester’s training is 
worthy of the most careful consideration, so that it 
may be suitable to*the fulfilment of the important 
duties entrusted to him. 
For nearly a quarter of a century a forest school 
had existed at Dehra Dun, whence issued yearly — 
some thirty to fifty subordinate officers trained in 
the theory, and also, to the limited extent that the 
course of two years permitted, in the local practice 
of forestry. From these men were drawn, after 
many years’ service, recruits for the executive and 
territorial posts in the Provincial Service, but these 
recruits received no special supplemental education ; 
they were, indeed, supposed to have added to their 
knowledge by the practical experience of some 
eighteen years in the subordinate grades, but too 
often promotion found them more ignorant profes- 
sionally than when they had left school, and ill 
equipped to wield the larger authority that was 
now given to them. And, as it is to indigenous 
agency that India must in the future look for the 
expansion of her executive establishments, it became 
urgently necessary to train the men who were to fill 
such posts so that they might efficiently carry out 
the duties that were to be imposed on them. 
Again, the lowest subordinates, such as Forest 
Guards and Foresters, were those in the most intimate 
connection with the “ toiling millions” of India, and 
