296 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
tion by the Government of India. Attention had 
been attracted to this subject by the absence of 
competition at the yearly examinations held in 
London, and this difficulty was thought to be trace- 
able to the expense of preparation, and to the 
inferior conditions of the service in India as compared. 
with those offered in other departments. The latter 
drawback had, as already described, been to some 
extent remedied, and it remained to devise a suitable 
system of training at home that should not involve 
parents and guardians in excessive expenditure. 
Forest students had for twenty years or so been 
training at Cooper’s Hill College, and on the closure 
of that institution had been transferred under the 
charge of Dr. (now Sir William) Schlich and 
Mr. W. R. Fisher to Oxford, where for the past 
three years new probationers had also been directed 
to prosecute their studies. To my mind, the chief 
points were to provide a University training, so 
that Forest Officers might have the same educa- 
tional advantages as recruits for the Indian Civil 
Service; to shorten the term of probation so as to 
reduce its expense, and to aid this object by grant- 
ing a suitable stipend to probationers; to do away 
with residence in the forests of Germany, prescrib- 
ing only visits to Continental forests during the 
vacations; to throw open the training of proba- 
tioners to all suitably equipped British Universities; 
and, lastly, to insist that there should be a pro- 
bationary period in India on a suitable salary, so 
that the recruit should have sufficient time to adapt 
his Western theories of forestry to actual practice in 
the East, and for an introduction to the language, 
