January 6, 1912. 



THE 



GARDENERS' MAGAZIwE. 



13 



FORESTRY AS A PROFESSION 



The interest in forestry matters which 

 has beeiL awakened wathin the last few 

 years has led to the assumption in some 

 quarters that forestry is likely to become 

 at an early date a lucrative profession for 

 an unlimited number of men. There does 

 not howeV'Cr, appear to be any good basis 

 for this idea, for in the event of a large 

 afforestation scheme being adopt<?d, many 

 years would be bound to pass in preliminary 

 work^ and until young plantations- began 

 to yield revenue the number of officers and 

 w^orkmen must necessarily be small. 



Some idea of the number of forest officers 

 required for a given area may be obtained 

 from the Forest Survey of Glen Mor 

 (Afforestation in Scotland), Vol. XXV. of 

 " The Transactions of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society," 1911. In a care- 

 fully considered scheme it is suggested that, 

 for a forest block of 15,000 acres, one head 



tached to the life, apart from its being their 

 means of sub:>!stence, and those whom 

 force of circumstances has causotl to take 

 up other branches of the profession or other 

 professions, find their keenest pleasure in 

 visiting the old haunts. 



Taken on the whole, the life of a forester 

 who has succeeded in obtaining a fairly 

 well paid situation may be considered as 

 a comfortable and enjoyable one; certainly 

 much to be preferred to nuiny so-called 

 good appointments in our lai'ge cities. That 

 a forester's profession is an easy one to 

 learn is another matter, for during his 

 early training he finds that l>e has to be- 

 come acquainted with many things besides 

 tree-planting and tree-cutting. He must 

 also have plenty of grit and perseverance, 

 otherwise he is liable to be disheartened 

 by the work of his earlier years. The fores- 

 ter of the future will also liave to obtain a 

 good theoretical knowledge of his profes- 

 sion, and know something of the numerous 



themselves would be better away. 



The 



forester would at first be required, with side issues of forestry, 

 three under foresters, and that in fifteen 

 or twenty years' time, as planting con- 

 tinued and thinning began to be necessary, 

 three head foresters would be required for 

 the 15,000 acres. Thus^ if it were possible 

 to take a million acres in hand at once, 

 roughly, 67 head foresters and 200 under 

 foresters would be required, with, of course, 

 a certain number of men who had been spe_ 



trained in surveying, valuation, 

 finance, and various other items. From 

 this it will be s^en that if a million acres 



:*ially 



It may not be out of place to point out 

 how forestry training is to be obtained in 

 this country. For the well-to-do^ forestry 

 instruction niav be obtained at several of 

 the Universities. Oxford University, Cam- 

 bridge University, the University College 

 of North Wales, Bangor ; Armstrong Col- 

 lege, Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; the University 

 of E<linburgh ; the Royal Agricultural 

 CoPege, Cirencester; the Glasgow and West 

 of Scotland Agricultural College : the Fdin- 

 burgh and East of Scotland College of 



youth who coul<l look forward to a year of 

 sound instruction from fully-qualified 

 teachers would in the intervening years be . 

 tween school and college, endeavour to 

 keep up and improve his education, so that 

 he could take full advantage of his teach- 

 ing, whereas at the present, with nothing 

 <lefin:te to look forward to, it is to be 

 feared that on arriving home after a tiring 

 day's work, he is a])t to neglect study for 

 something more entertaining. The man, 

 too, who had been through five or six years 

 of ])ractical work woukl he able to make 

 l)etter use of scientific or theoretical train- 

 than the youth who went straight to 

 college from school and sj^ent little or no 

 time at ])ractical work. To men wdio 

 think that forestry means only the 

 planting and cutting of trees, tho ^ower 

 ranks of the profession only are open, but 

 to intelligent youths who are prepared to 

 work and study hard with low wages for 

 a number of years until they have mas- 

 tered their work, forestry offers an honour- 

 able and comfortable livelihood, with im- 

 proving prospects in view. 



W. Dallimore. 



were taken in hand within the next ten Agriculture, and the Aberdeen and North 



years, a comparatively small number of 

 trained foresters would be required, and it 

 is probable that practical foresters are 

 being trained quite fast enough for all im- 

 mediate requirements. This idea wouM ap- 

 pear to be upheld from the reports issued 

 from time to time concerning the School 

 for Working Woodmen in the Forest of 

 Dean. For about eight men leave the 

 school annually, and most of them obtain 

 situations, but if the school were extended 

 so that a greater number of men might be 



SEAWEED AS MANURE. 



I was much interested in the article on 

 " Seaweed as Manure," wdiich appeared in 

 the issue of Novendx^r 4, i)age 82/ . I have 

 assisted in the gathering of many tons of 

 seaweed from the Lancashire coast in More- 

 cambe Bay. The weed ching to the rocks, 

 ^^'hi^'l^ ^'^^♦^ scattered over many acres of 

 Kill "pa'rticuiars"of the foreshore, and w\as, of course, when 

 es and the annroxi- gathered, quite fresh and very suociilent. 



1 he seaweed was used durmg tho autumn 

 and winter months to mix with the manure 



tical forester usually serves an apprentice- 

 ship imder some good forester ; he then 

 moves about from place to place for several 

 years in order to gain experience, and 

 gradually works up to be a head forester. 

 He is able nowadays to obtain a ^-ertain 

 taken, it is considered doubtful whether amount of theoretical training, for courses 



Scotl 

 Schools 



the courses at these places and the approxi- 

 mate cost may be found in "The Journal 



of the Board of Agriculture," Vol. XVI., . i r xi ^ n a 



No. 12, March, 1910, pp. 969-981. A prac- J- ^ -1^^^ ''^ !:rJ:^j'^^:i\.±\tl 



they would all be able to obtain situations 

 when their time at the school expired. 



It is quite probable that, in the event 

 of an extensive planting scheme being com- 

 menced, a dearth of planters would be ex- 

 perienced rather than foresters, for, al- 

 though we have been told that anyone can 

 plant trees, the views of practical foresters 

 do not coincide w^ith those of people who 

 sometimes make such statements. Again, 

 forestry is w^ork for country-bred men 

 rather than town men, and although some 

 town men might get accustomed to the life, 

 a great many would never become accli- 

 matised, for it has to be admitted that the 

 work of a forest hand who is worth his salt 



of lei'tures for practical foresters are now 

 to be had at Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and 

 Newcastle, and a two-year course of instrtic- 

 tion is obtainable at the Forest of Dean 

 School. Full particulars of the latter 

 school are to be found in "The Journal of 

 the Board of Agriculture,'' Vol. XVIII., 



No. -6, September, 1911, pp. 498-500. At 



this school two afternoons a week are given 

 up to lectures and the rest of the week 

 to practical work. There would, however, 

 appear to be a need for a twelvemonths' 

 course on theoretical w^ork for approve<:l 

 young foresters who have spent a number 

 of years at practi<*al work. Practical men 

 are seriously handica])ped, inasmuch that 



strawy manure was formed into a neat heap 

 the seaw^eed w^^s judiciously mixed with it, 

 and at the end of alx)Ut six weeks the w^hole 

 heap was turned over. By the end of 

 January the heap had sunk considerably 

 and become verv solid and much rotted. 

 This manure was exceedingly good for as- 

 paragus and potatoes, but it was used for 

 general garden crops, and as the soil in 

 that particular garden and the neighbour- 

 hood was naturally light, the crops grown 

 in quarters so manured "held out'' very 

 well, even in hot seasons. The seawee<I 

 w^as generally used in this way by the 

 farmers and market gardeners also. 



Mussels w^ere there very plentiful, and 

 were dug and ploughed in for potato crops^ 

 and I have never seen tubers with clearer 

 skins than those producer! in that district. 

 Scarcely any other kind of manure was 



used in addition to the mussels. 



Geo. Garner. 



is of an arduous nature, and if any doubt most, or sometimes all, of their study has 

 ^tj^l^t him try three months' planting on to be done at night, after a hard day's work 



in the open air, extending over from nine 

 to twelve hours and thev are therefore 



a bleak hill-side, exposed to all the winds 

 of heaven and all the storms that come, 

 for iu the event of a storm he has to work 



_ _ _ . unable to do themselves iustice. Yet if a 

 through it; there is no running to shelter, man wishes to fit himself for the higher 

 Likewise^ after a town life, many men 

 would not settle down well to isolate<l 



country conditions, 

 hand, the 



On 



the other 



eager 



to 



man wdio has been horn to 

 a country life, and has worked all his 

 tune in woodlands, is rarelv 

 change his lot with any other man; the 

 w^ork and life have a fascination for him, 

 and instances aie known of families who 

 for generations have live<l and work-d in 

 and about forest areas for a low wag(\ yet 

 the sons and daughters prefer to stav abmr 

 the o^d home rather than go further afiek 

 for higher wages. This love of a forest 

 me does not apply to forest workmen only, 

 lor head foresters are, as a rule, deeply at- 



branches of his profession, it is the only 

 course open to him, as he cannot afford a 

 full Tniversity course^ neither would it be 

 to his advantage to leave practical work for 

 the necessary length of time ; but for 

 the vear he mii'-lit verv well kn-k 



year 



his spade and axe away. Men are 

 expected to know something of the 

 theoretical side of their |)rofcssion. and 

 it is only right that tlH\v should do so, 

 but it is Verv diTficult to <)l)triiii the know- 



ut 

 1 



ledge under existing i-ircuuistanccs. except 

 for those who are most favourably pl':ced. 

 It would, however, only be possible for tho 

 better men to undertake such a course of 

 training ; men who had no wish to improve 



Begfonia Gloire de Sceaux. 



This is, as a rule, at its best quite early in 

 the new year, at which time nuiny of tha 

 B. Socotrana hybrids are past their best. 

 It forms a bold specimen with handsome 

 bronzy-green leaves, and a profusion of 

 bright rose-coloured flowers. Tlious;h grown 

 now for many years, its merits are some- 

 times apt to be overlooked. — K, 



Hippeastrum aulicum.— Tlie hip- 



peastrunis, as a rule, flower during the spring 

 months, but this Hj^ecies, in common with 

 two or three others, is at its br-st in the 

 antiunn. It produces a particularly stout 

 fl(»wer scape, while the blo?>iomrs themselves 

 ai'e red, veined with a deeper tint. Compared 

 with the present-day garden varieties of hip- 

 peastrum, the segments of the flow?r of this 

 specie,:; are pointed, and irregiilar in 8hape. 

 For this reason it has l>e'?n but little em- 

 ployed bv the hvbridist for the production of 

 new varieties; but it is a showy plant, and 

 for autumn flowering much can lie said in 

 ite favour. — W. 



