141 



munity. By scientific men it has been practically ignored. Yet it is 

 a division of Rural Economy which ought to be the basis of a large 

 national industry. 



2. There are no intrinsic circumstances in the country to prevent 

 our growing trees as a profitable crop for timber as well as our neigh- 

 bours. On the contrary, Great Britain is specially well adapted for 

 tree-growing. We have woodlands of fine trees, grown after traditional 

 rule-of-thumb methods, abundant in many districts. The beauty 

 of an English landscape lies in its trees and its pastures. Nowhere in 

 the world, probably, are to be found finer specimens of tree-growth. 

 As aboriculturists we are unrivalled. But the growing of trees for 

 effect and in plantations is a very different matter from their culti- 

 vation on scientific principles, for the purpose of yielding profitable 

 crops. This is sylviculture. The guiding lines of the two methods 

 of culture are by no means the same — nay, they may be opposed ; and 

 it is the sylvicultural aspect of the science of forestry which has 

 hitherto been neglected in this country. The recognition of this is 

 no new thing. But within recent years it has attracted considerable 

 public attention, as the importance of wood cultivation in our national 

 life has been more realised ; and although various proposals have been 

 put forward, and some little effort made for the purpose of remedying 

 the admittedly unsatisfactory state of forestry practice, there has been 

 so far no great result. I attribute this in great measure to the apathy 

 of scientific men, especially botanists, and I am convinced that until 

 they devote attention to forestry the great issues involved in it will 

 not be rightly appreciated in the country. 



3. It is not the first time the subject has been before this Section. 

 I find that in 1885, at the Aberdeen meeting, a committee was ap- 

 pointed by it to consider " whether the condition of our forests and 

 woodlands might not be improved by the establishment of a forest- 

 school." The good intention of the promoters was not fulfilled, how- 

 ever. The committee did not meet. 



4. In the first instance, let me briefly refer to the national economic 

 features of forests as they affect us. 



5. There are two aspects from which forests are of importance to a 

 country — firstly, as a source of timber and fuel ; secondly, on account 

 of their hygienic and climatic influences. 



6. With regard to the latter, it is a popular notion that trees exer- 

 cise considerable influence upon the atmospheric conditions, but it is 

 only within recent years, and as the result of long experimental re- 

 search in Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, and other areas 

 where forestry is practised at a high level of excellence, and also in 

 the United States, that any sufficient data have been forthcoming to 

 form a basis of scientific conclusion upon so important a matter. Al- 

 though many points are still far from clear, the evidence goes to show 

 that the direct influence of tree-growth upon climate is no mere su- 

 perstition. Stated in the most general terms, it is proved that forests 

 improve the soil drainage, and thereby modify miasmatic conditions ; 

 whilst, like all green plants, trees exercise, through the process of 

 carbon-assimilation, a purifying effect upon the air, the existence of 

 the increased quantity of ozone often claimed for the vicinity of forests 



