152 



"Prof. Marshall Ward's lucid little books on timber and plant-diseases, 

 and we are promised immediately, under his editorship, a translation of 

 Hartig's " Diseases of Trees," by Prof. Somerville A most valuable 

 and interesting contribution to forestry literature is the book by Dr. 

 Nisbet, recently issued from the Clarendon Press, containing the lec- 

 tures he delivered in the University of Oxford during the past year ; 

 and to his marvellous energy we shall owe the new edition of " Brown's 

 Forester," which is shortly to appear, and an English version of Hartig's 

 At Text-Book" for foresters. All this activity shows an increasing in- 

 terest in forestry, but it is only the beginning of a movement to make 

 up for the preceding dearth. Botanists are greatly indebted to the 

 Delegates of the Clarendon Press — and it is fitting I should here ac- 

 knowledge the obligation — for the splendid series of standard foreign 

 works on botany they have brought within the reach of English-speaking 

 students, and which have done so much for the progress of botany in 

 Britain. If we have now got beyond the stage of dependence in pure 

 botany, we are far from it in scientific forestry, and I would hope that 

 the Clarendon Press will add to its botanical series some of the standard 

 foreign forestry books, and thus aid in the dissemination of the know- 

 ledge so essential to progress in the subject. 



33. I must not omit to refer here to the excellent opportunity that is 

 afforded for the circulation of scientific information by the new journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture, of which intimation has recently been 

 made, and it is to be hoped that forestry will find a place in it side by 

 side with agriculture. 



34. The attention paid to the teaching and study of forestry by con- 

 tinental Slates, their many schools and copious literature of forestry, 

 make it remarkable that, apart altogether from the economic side, 

 forestry as a subject of study and investigation has not been long ago 

 introduced in some of our teaching centres. I think the Sibthorpian 

 Chair of Rural Economy of the University of Oxford was for long the 

 only one through which forestry was recognised as within the sphere of 

 University education. So far the limited tenure of this chair, in its new 

 dress, has been held by agriculturists — in their line the most distinguished 

 men ; but I should like to think that one may look f orward to a time 

 when forestry shall have its turn, if by that time it has not come about 

 that it is otherwise provided for. 



35. It was, however, only the necessities of India which, at a com- 

 paratively recent date, led to the first starting of forestry teaching in 

 Britain, and then only at the cost of India, and for those destined to 

 serve there as foresters. Cooper's Hill College, the outcome of these, 

 with its excellent equipment — including now, I believe, a slice of 

 Windsor Forest for purposes of practical work — possesses the elements 

 of a successful forestry school, and it has within recent years opened its 

 doors to outsiders who may wish to learn forestry. But, so far as I. am 

 aware, it does not draw the young landowners of the country as it should 

 do. Possibly the expense of the special education, which equals that of 

 the universities without offering the advantages in other directions they 

 afford, may be deterrent ; but I am inclined to think that if the 

 authorities made the fact better known that men other than foresters 

 for India are admitted to the college, more would avail themselves of 

 the opportunity. 



