The Table of the GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF
to be stitched into this Part.

LONDON : PRINTED BY JAMES MOVES,

Castlt Street, Leicester Square.

THE

SCIENCE AND TEACHING

OF

FORESTRY.

A LECTURE

DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, CIRENCESTER,

July ^th, 1882,

BY

G. S. BOULGER, F.L.S., F.G.S.

Reprinted from the "Journal of Forestry and Estate Management."

LONDON :
WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, 14, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

1882.

THE SCIENCE AND TEACHING

OP

FOEESTEY

IT gives me mucli pleasure to address you here and on my present
subject : here, because in one of the adjacent class-rooms, in 1876,
before a large class of voluntary students, I had the honour of giving what
was, I believe, the first course of lectures on forestry as a complete science
ever delivered in this country ; on my present subject, because I am fully
convinced of its great national importance at the present time. There can
hardly be said to be any interest in the science of forestry here in England ;
in fact, most people have but very vague ideas as. to. its scope, objects or
importance. The word " forester," most commonly suggests a member of
an admirable friendly society with a tendency to green silk scarves and
badges, or occasional masquerading as Robin Hood and his merry men. A
" forest " is to many of us a large wood or plantation, the most valuable
function of which is to act as a game-preserve. This latter view has been
prevalent throughout Europe for seven centuries. The original significance
of the word "forest" is that land which was outside (Latin foris) the
" ham," " mark," or "ton," that is, the home-farm or tilled land of the town-
ship, which was not cleared, or felled; not in "fields," and not under the
same laws as the agricultural land which had itself once formed part of the
primeval forest. Thus the forest was part of the " common " lands of the
early village communities, who felled its timber for firewood or for building,
and turned their cattle to graze in its open spaces, or to feed on the masts
and acorns of its woodlands. Probably large tracts of land in many parts
of Great Britain have never been covered with timber trees within the his-
torical period, yet were forest in the strict sense of the word. This forest
land was not subject to that periodical redistribution and primitive system
of rotation of crops which applied to the " common fields " of the com-
munity ; and thus when the Continental feudalism superseded the early
English village system, the forest lands fell more completely into the hands
of the Crown and the nobility, the " lords of the manor," subject generally,
however, to the " common rights " of topping and lopping, cutting turf,
pasturage, &c., varying in different cases. The primeval forests of England
were probably of oak ; the beech, the lime, and probably the elm being in-
troduced during the Roman occupation, and the chestnut perhaps not till
Norman times. The woodlands that had been the strongholds of the
Britons, and in which Gurth and Wamba fed the swine of the Saxon thane

330254

Science ' and Teaching of Forestry .

become, under the Normans, merely a game preserve, and our forest laws had
only this object in view. The royal forests were drawn upon for the supply
of timber to the navy ; but there was no systematic management, but little
regulation of felling, and probably no artificial planting till the writings of
John Evelyn, in the reign of Charles II., roused Englishmen to a sense of
the value of their timber trees.

The Sussex iron-works in little more than a century almost cleared the
forests of the Weald ; a similar demand for charcoal caused great destruc-
tion in the forest of Dean ; the value of agricultural land, enhanced by the
Corn Laws, no doubt led to much clearing of woodlands ; and in many of
the remaining forest districts the unrestricted rights of pasturage, and of
topping and lopping prevented the proper growth of mature timber.

The forests of other countries have had a similar history, and it is from
their experiences that I wish to demonstrate my first point, the national
importance of scientific forestry.

Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Cyprus, once most fertile, are now
barren, whilst many of their harbours have become silted up, according to
the high authority of Sir Bichard Temple, mainly owing to disforesting.
Sir Richard also looks upon this as the main cause of the famines of India
and China. In Ceylon the removal of the forests exposing the ground to
the full force of tropical rainfall, is resulting in the lowering of the general
surface at the rate of a third of an inch per annum, thus removing the agri-
cultural soil. In Mauritius, once the sanatorium of India, the climate has
undoubtedly deteriorated as the air has become drier from the removal of
the forests : and the springs are drying up ; whilst, though gum-trees have
been recently introduced from Australia, much timber has to be imported
for building and firewood. Though possessing some of the finest species of
timber trees in the world, the gum trees, some parts of Australia are already,
from reckless felling, in want both of firewood and of timber for mining and
other purposes ; so that steps are now being taken towards forest conserva-
tion. In New Zealand, the most valuable timber tree, the Kauri pine, was
five years ago threatened with rapid extermination. The immense lum-
bering trade of Canada and the United States, and such wholesale waste as
felling thousands of fine hemlock-spruce for the sake of the bark alone,
which is used in tanning, the timber being left to rot on the ground,
threatens the very existence of their forests. At present rates of consump-
tion, without conservation, North America will apparently be denuded of
timber in less than a century, whilst the only eastern United States not
already so denuded, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, will seemingly be
so within the next fifteen years. Similarly, the wholesale felling of the
greenheart in Demerara, where saplings are actually used as rollers in trans-
porting the larger logs, and of the siphonia or caoutchouc in Brazil have
produced a falling off in the supply of these valuable trees. Humboldt
mentions that the water supply of Venezuela had decreased from the clearing
of some of the forests ; whilst some of the "West Indian islands, in spite of
a tropical rainfall, have been reduced to arid, sandy wastes. South Africa
has suffered much in climate from the destruction of forests, the rainfall
having become somewhat less and very irregular, months or years of
drought being followed by torrents which flow off the land without benefit-
ting it. The pine forests of Tunis have disappeared during the last
hundred years, and Colonel Playfair, our Consul-General for Algeria, speaks
thus of the resulting evils : — " A hill-side deprived of the forest whose
foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to
retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the

Science and Teaching of Forestry .

power of supporting vegetable life at all. The rich mould gets washed by
winter rains into the valleys ; in the summer months the sand is blown down
on top of this ; succeeding rains carry down stones and gravel, till very
soon all the most fertile portions of the soil disappear, leaving a residuum
which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilised
by an exceptional amount of moisture, which, as time progresses, must
become rarer and rarer."

Coming nearer home, to the continent of Europe, we find that all
the countries bordering on the Mediterranean — Turkey, Spain, Italy, and
to some extent France — have suffered from the destruction of their woodlands
on the hill-sides, many springs having become dry. The political decadence
of Spain has been attributed entirely to this cause. The deforesting of the
Apennines during the last two centuries has much increased the violence of
the mountain-torrents, and in Switzerland the existing forests are found to
check both the formation and the descent of avalanches. Russia has not
only the largest area of forest of any European State, but the largest per
centage, namely, 42 of her whole area, and there is now much energy in
conservation and planting. It was, however, recently reported that there
was a decrease in the waters of the Volga and consequently in the Caspian,
from timber-felling. The ably-managed forests of Sweden are an important
source of national revenue, whilst I shall have presently to refer again to those
of Germany, the birthplace of the teaching of forest science. In Denmark it
appears that the felling of the woods on the Atlantic coast has exposed the
country to the sharp sea winds and to drifting sand, forming lagoons and bogs,
and causing a marked deterioration of the climate. France it is, however,
that perhaps more than any of our Continental neighbours shows the advan-
tages of scientific forestry and the danger of its neglect. Useful legislation,
dating from the sixteenth century, was swept away at the Revolution, and
reckless destruction of forests, especially in the south, has led to frequent
and disastrous floods, as in the valleys of the Rhone and Saone. The
government are now, at immense expense, replanting the slopes of the Alps,
with the beneficial effect of lessening the force of such torrential streams as.
the Durance. Moreover the cultivation of the cluster pine in the depart-
ment of Landes has converted low marshes between Bayonne and Bordeaux
into valuable productive land.

In Great Britain the abundance of coal renders us independent of wood
as fuel, and our geographical position so facilitates the importation of timber
that we have to a great extent neglected our woodlands as a source of profit.
Our mild insular climate also has enabled us to overlook the hygienic im-
portance of forests, and very possibly the conclusion arrived at in the
United States, that the soil is most productive when one-fourth woodland,
may not be true in our case. Bad seasons and foreign competition, how-
ever, cause us to look around us on all sides for means of rendering our land
more productive.

In a report on a visit to the English and Scotch forests made to the
India Office by M. Boppe, inspector of French forests, in March last, he

Considering the present depressed state of agriculture all over Europe,
it becomes more and more necessary to endeavour to draw the greatest pos-
sible advantage from the land, and, by properly adapting a different vegeta-
tion to different soils, to seek to obtain, through the medium of the enormous
capital which the present generation can command, the maximum produc-
tion from a minimum area. It is thus that the forests are called upon to
play an important part in the immediate future, and the farmer will hence-

Science and Teaching of Forestry.

forth find a powerful auxiliary in the forester. After making every allowance
for the great fertility of the soil in Great Britain, we feel certain that in
many districts more than one of the forests which were cleared some time
back, would now be jealously preserved by the same proprietors who formerly
cut them down. It must also be borne in mind that the British empire is
not confined to Great Britain and Ireland, and that, by reason of her
immense possessions, England is, perhaps of all nations in the world, the
most richly endowed with valuable timber forests. It is by hundreds of
millions of acres that we may reckon the forests of Canada, India and Australia,
New Zealand, and Cape Colony, not to speak of those in the West Indies
and Borneo. All these natural resources of wealth are worked by British
enterprise and British capital, and, seeing the present wonderful develop-
ment of commerce throughout the globe, it is a matter of importance to
every civilised nation that this vast accumulation of forest riches should not
fall into the hands of ignorant persons, or be squandered away regardless of
the future. For these reasons the establishment of a Forest School in
England becomes a matter of primary importance." To come to figures,
Great Britain has the smallest proportion of woodland to area of any State
in Europe, little more than three per cent., the acreage being — -England and
Wales nearly H millions, Scotland little over 730,000, and Ireland 325,000
acres. The private plantations of Scotland are mainly coniferous ; but in
England 125,000 acres are in the occupation of the Crown, being mostly
mixed forest. The chief state forests are the New Forest, in Hampshire, of
76,000 ; the^Forest of Dean, in this county, of 22,000 ; and Windsor Park of
14,000 acres. The total acreage of forest in the British Empire is estimated
at 340,000,000 acres.

If, then, the forests of our colonies are important for sanitary reasons and
with reference to the timber supply of the world, and it is desirable that
we should produce as much timber as possible, as cheaply as possible, for
our home consumption, mines, railways, building, &c., I wish next to show
the value of timber as an investment, — the value as capital of a growing tree.

Now, leaving increase of height out of consideration, since trees reach
their full height before they attain their greatest dimensions, a healthy
forest tree makes a new ring of wood each year of approximately equal
width. If, then, we number these circles 1, 2, 3, 4, See., from within out-
wards, their areas will be as the squares of these numbers, 1, 4, 9, 16 &c.
or the yearly gain as the difference of these squares 3, 5, 7, 9, an arith-
metical series having a common difference of 2. Few other investments
can approach this rate of return.

In order to secure this return it is no doubt necessary in the first place to
lay out a considerable capital ; secondly, to lay it out properly ; thirdly, not
to trench upon this capital, but to expend a certain annual amount to sustain
it, and lastly, to wait some years for the return. Obviously, then, the plant-
ing of woodland is a matter for proprietors rather than tenants. Few sober
foresters claim that timber can be relied upon in England to pay the rental
of the best agricultural land. The costliness of transport and the uncertainty
of the market are important considerations ; but it is maintained that many
upland tracts, and other districts now barren, or nearly so, might be made to
yield a handsome return to capital. For this, however, scientific manage-
ment is necessary.

The science of forestry consists of two main divisions ; sylviculture and
forest administration. Sylviculture is concerned with geology so far as it
relates to the soils suitable to various species ; with meteorology in reference
to aspect, altitude, and other climatic conditions ; with chemistry as to- the

Science and Teaching of Forestry.

composition of soils and of the various forest products ; particularly
with vegetable physiology, the vital processes of trees and other plants ;
with descriptive botany for the discrimination of species, and with
entomology as to the insect foes and friends of the trees. It is necessary, in
fact, that the theory of the healthy culture of trees, and its study in the lecture-
room and laboratory, must be accompanied by that of the art of forestry, so far
as it concerns sowing, planting, protecting and such pruning and thinning as
the health of the trees require. It is as essential to the estate manager who
plants for ornament, recreation, or game covert, as to him who plants for
profit in timber.

Forest administration deals with the realisation of the crop to the best
advantage. The leading principle of this science is that the forest as a
whole be regarded as capital, and that the interest thereon is the amount
of wood formed in the year. This is the greatest amount of timber that
ought to be removed in the year.

The methods by which this result is approximated are various ; but
there are four chief plans which we will consider in what is their chrono-
logical and natural order. They are felling by selection, or Pldnterbetrieb;
clearing by compartments, or tire et aire, felling by rotation of area, or
FachiverJce Methode, with artificial planting, and the same method with
reproduction by means of natural seeding.

The first of these, felling by selection, or Planterbetrieb, is the primitive
system, if system it can be termed, in all countries. The forester either
fells just such trees as he wants over the whole forest area, or he takes all
those of full age each year, so that there will be a corresponding number
reaching maturity the next year. The drawbacks to this system are, 1st, its
disregard of the annual increment of the forest in cubic feet of timber ;
2nd, the difficulty of supervision when operations are spread over so large
an area, and, 3rd, the damage done to seedlings and saplings all over the
forest in removing the felled logs. This method is virtually followed in
many small English woodlands and private forests in Germany ; but the
yield it gives is both uncertain and less in amount than that of more
scientific methods. It has, however, been modified in some cases so as to
resemble the French system of tire et aire. The forest is divided into
twenty blocks, and in the first year all trees from eighty to a hundred years
old are felled in block 1 ; in the second all trees from eighty-one to a
hundred-and one in block 2 ; and so on. Thus whilst in the twentieth year
the trees felled will be from one hundred to one hundred and twenty years
old in the twenty-first they will be from eighty to one hundred.

In the French system of tire et aire, now abandoned, a period called a
revolution was fixed for the clearing of all existing trees, natural seeding
being relied on for reproduction. The forest was then divided into as many
compartments as there were years in the revolution, one being felled each
year, with the exception of a few standards left as seed-bearers. It was
found in practice that little dependence could be placed on this unsheltered
seeding, and that not unfrequently trees of a quite distinct species sprang
up, thus changing the character of the forest for a generation or more.
This system was superseded in France by the German Fachwerke Methode
about fifty years ago. In the Scotch plantations it is still followed with
very satisfactory results, with the modification that each year's subdivision
of the forest area is entirely cleared and then replanted. Thus the trees are
all felled at one age, and those in any compartment are also all of one age.

Hartig, the father of German forestry in Nassau, at the beginning of the
century, and Cotta, in Saxony, some ten years later, laid the foundation of

8 Science and Teaching of Forestry.

the present ideal method of German forest administration. On this system
each two or three thousand acres is considered in all respects as a separate
forest. In the case of each of these a period or rotation is agreed upon
varying with the species of tree, 200 years for oak, 120 to 150 for beech and
Scotchfir, and the forest is divided into as many blocks as there are years
in the rotation. These blocks may be equal in area, or may vary with the
productiveness of the soil, so as to equalise the yield. They are then
subdivided into four, five, or six compartments, to each of which a sub-
period of about thirty years is assigned. About one-fifth of the trees on one-
sixth of the subdivision will be felled each year, some additional thinnings
being necessarily carried on over the whole area continuously. The theory of
this system is that we should follow closely the practice of nature. The
young trees will draw each other up till they reach their maximum height,
which will be when they are about half their full age. In nature the
struggle for existence leads to the survival of the fittest ; whilst in this
system of forestry we fell the least vigorous trees, giving light to the
others, whose stems will increase in diameter when they have ceased to
lengthen, but have more room to spread their heads. In this way the
seedlings are sheltered, no part of the forest being ever completely cleared.

It has been objected to this method that trees transplanted from a
nursery have been shown experimentally to yield more timber than natural
seedlings ; but it may be doubted whether this difference is sufficient to
counterbalance the loss of productiveness from not having the two crops on
the ground simultaneously, the old trees still adding wood while the seed-
lings are growing up under their shade, and the seedlings beginning life
some years earlier, before their predecessors are fully matured. My private
opinion at present is in favour of the system of clearing and planting in
coniferous plantations, such as those of Scotland ; but of the German
natural system in deciduous forests.

Whatever system is followed, it is as essential that the forester should
have an accurate survey of the forest, an estimate of the amount of timber
it contains, and of its annual increase, and a working plan of operations as
it is for the farmer to be acquainted with the acreage and soil of his farm,
and the number and weight of his cattle.

The aim and principles of forestry and agriculture are the same, namely,
the greatest productiveness of the soil. They differ only in the crops raised.
Neither is a distinct branch of pure science ; they are both applications of the
principles of various sciences to the practice of an art. In both, therefore,
our motto must be, " Practice with science." Whilst no amount of book-
learning or lecture-hearing will make a forester, the mere unassisted following
of the rule-of- thumb routine of practical forest work, or trusting to one's own
unaided powers of observation and inference, can seldom make a good
forester, and never a good forest administrator. Hence the need for forest
schools.

The first forest schools were those of Hartig and Cotta, which were super-
seded about the year 1820 by State academies in nearly all the German
states. These are now being re-organised under the central government.
In 1824 France followed the lead of Germany by establishing the forest
school at Nancy, to the labours of the directors and staff of which, Lorenz,
Parade, Nanquette, Bagneris, and Broillard, we owe very much. There
are now forest schools in all the principal states of Europe. In Germany
there are eight ; viz., Eisenach in Saxe Weimar, Tharant near Dresden,
Neustadt Eberswald, near Berlin, Miinden in Hanover, Giessen in Hesse,
Carlsruhe in Baden, Hohenheim near Stuttgart, and Aschaffenburg in

Science and Teaching of Forestry.

Bavaria. In the Austrian empire the chief schools are at Marienbrunn near
Vienna, and at Schemnitzin Hungary. In Russia there are four chief schools,
Bvois in Finland, Nova Alexandria in Poland, Peteroffsky near Moscow,
and Berdiansk on the sea of Azoff. Sweden has a State school at Stock-
holm ; Denmark one at Copenhagen. In Spain there is a school in the
Escorial ; in Italy one at Vallombrosa in Tuscany ; and even Roumania
has recently established one. In the United States, owing to the energy of
Dr. Hough, the Government have decided on the necessity of establishing
such a school. In Great Britain, the state that is richer in forests than
any other in the world, there is no proper provision for the teaching of
forestry.

From the representations of Humboldt and others, the British Association
in 1851 adopted the following conclusions : —

" 1. That over large portions of the globe there is still an almost un-
controlled destruction of the indigenous forests in progress, from the waste-
ful habits of the population.

"2. That where conservancy has been introduced, considerable improve-
ment has already taken place.

"3. That these improvements may be extended by a rigid enforcement of
the present regulations, and the enactment of additional provisions of the
following character, viz., careful maintenance of the forest by valuation,
surveys and working plans, and by the preservation or plantation of seed-
lings in place of mature trees removed, — nurseries being established ; pro-
hibition of cutting until trees are well grown, with rare and special excep-
tions for peculiar purposes.

" 4. That especial attention should be given to the preservation and
maintenance of forests occupying tracts unsuited for other culture, whether
by reason of altitude or peculiarities of physical structure.

" 5. That in a country to which the maintenance of its water supplies is of
extreme importance, the indiscriminate clearing of forests around the
localities whence those supplies are derived is greatly to be deprecated.

" 6. That it is a duty to prevent the excessive waste of wood, the timbers
useful for building and manufacturers being reserved and husbanded.

"7. That as much local ignorance prevails as to the number and nature of
valuable forest products, measures should be taken to supply, through the
officers in charge, information calculated to diminish such ignorance."

Roused by this warning note, attempts were made in India just before
the mutiny, and more thoroughly after it, to organise a forest conservancy,
and at the present time there is in that empire a forest department of about
150 officers, or rather less than a man to every hundred square miles, or
over 60,000 acres of forests. For efficiency the department ought un-
doubtedly to be increased tenfold, though their efforts already result in a
surplus forest revenue of nearly £300,000 per annum, or about £2,000 for
each officer empl 3yed. The Indian government have established a school
in the north of India, at Dehra Dun, for the training of the native sub-
ordinate forest officers. To this school a large forest area is to be attached
for teaching purposes.

In Scotland the Highland and Agricultural Society have a very excellently
organised examination in the theory and practice of forestry ; but they have
found great difficulty in getting candidates to present themselves. The
obvious causes of this are two in number ; 1st, the examination being un-
official, the Society has nothing to offer but its diploma; 2nd, and more
important, there being no school of forestry in the kingdom and no syste-
matic practical teaching in State forests, the wonder is, not that there are

io Science and Teaching of Forestry.

few, but that there are any candidates for an examination, which is, as of
course it should be, both theoretical and practical.

The Science and Art Department, holding as they do examinations in
agriculture, have declined to add forestry to their list of subjects ; and it
may well be doubted whether any examination scheme would be of any use
in the absence of proper arrangements for teaching.

Since I lectured on forestry here in 1876, taking as my text-book a trans-
lation, published in India, of Professor Bagneris' excellent" Manuel de Sylvi-
culture," which was in your library, public opinion in this country has been
a good deal directed to the establishment of a forest school, not only for
the Indian department, the candidates for which are now trained, at a con-
siderable expense and in a foreign language, at Nancy, but also for our own
woodlands at home and the vast forests in Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and the Cape. These colonies now are reduced to borrowing forest officers
from India, where they cannot be safely spared.

For this reviving interest we are mainly indebted to the efforts of the
Rev. J. Croumbie Brown, of Haddington, to whose writings I am much
indebted, and to the proprietors of our excellent Journal of Forestry, which
was started in May, 1877.

The "Rev. Dr. Brown has ably advocated the establishment of a forest-
school at Edinburgh, in connection with the University and Arboretum.
Mr. Mackenzie, superintendent of Epping Forest, urges the establishment
of such a school in connection with the 6,000 acres of forest land in Essex
now under the control of the Corporation of London. M. Boppe, in the
report from which I have previously quoted, recommends the endowment of
professorships of Forest Economy and Sylviculture at Edinburgh, and at the
Eoyal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's-hill.

As to these various schemes I would remark that whilst Edinburgh offers
great facilities for the study of subsidiary sciences, languages and other
subjects, in addition to that most valuable adjunct, the Arboretum, the
drawback to it as the seat of a State school of forestry is the absence of
any neighbouring state forest where scientific and systematic working has
been carried out for any length of time and can be assured for teaching pur-
poses in the future. Epping Forest is, like many of the school forests of
the continent, in close proximity to the capital. It presents much variety
of hardwood forest in a small area ; but its future management is hampered
by two conditions which render it probably unfit for an educational forest :
1st, the rights of the commoners, who have ruined the forest by pollarding
in the past and who must seriously injure it by pasturage in the future ;
and 2ndly, the Act of Parliament which enacts that it is to be main-
tained only for recreation and not worked as a source of profit. The trees
cannot, therefore, be felled when mature; no enclosures are allowed for
any purpose, and, though there are large areas where planting may be most
advantageously carried out, there can be nothing like scientific forest ad-
ministration in connection with it. Windsor Park similarly affords but
partial forest instruction, the conservation of the trees being the main object,
and not their administration as a source of profit. The New Forest has
been so ruined by the unrestricted exercise of the rights of common, that,
according to M. Boppe's report, 49,000 acres will before very long be
nothing but a worthless barren heath, whilst at least 50 years must elapse
before the 14,000 acres reserved about 20 years ago can be so far restored
as to be felled systematically as a source of revenue. In M. Boppe's words
" it will not be here that a professor of sylviculture, desirous of teaching
his science, will choose LQ pitch his tent."

I . A** i • J"*- *•!•• i\i : A

Science and Teaching of Forestry. 1 1

Forest students require the stimulating prospect of Government employ-
ment. In Germany there are abundant competitors, though the training
involves five years study without pay, and five years probation with but
meagre allowances. The cost of education is naturally in inverse proportion
to the number of pupils, so that it would probably not be remunerative for
a private person to teach forestry in this country without State aid. I am
inclined to think that two or three endowed chairs of forestry, as suggested
by M. Boppe, an open competitive examination under Government, similar
to that by which candidates are selected for the Civil Service of India, and
perhaps a few scholarships like those established by the Government of
Bengal in connection with this college, would be the cheapest, and perhaps
the best means of inaugurating the teaching of forestry in the head-quarters
of our empire.

In Germany it is the prevailing opinion that forestry acquires a more
dignified position, and is more thoroughly taught when the school of forestry
is not a distinct institution, but is affiliated to a university, a polytechnic, a
school of engineering or of agriculture. Thus at Giessen it is associated
with the University, at Carlsruhe with the Polytechnic, and at Copenhagen
Tharant in Saxony, Hohenheim in Wurtemburg, Nova Alexandria, St.
Petersburg and Petroffsky with a College of Agriculture.

When the Forest School at Nancy was established in 1827, there were
only three professors, besides masters for drawing and German, viz., one of
natural history, one of mathematics and one of forest economy, legislation
and jurisprudence. There are now eight. At Aschaffenburg in Bavaria there
are four professors, viz., of forestry, of forest law, of natural science, and of
mechanics and engineering. In the Polytechnicum at Carlsruhe there are
only two professors of forest science, though the entire staff numbers forty-
nine, thus illustrating forcibly the advantages of affiliation.

The course of instruction varies considerably in the different continental
schools. At Nancy pupils enter by competition, when between 18 and 20,
and remain two years in the school, and a third as apprentices in the adjoin-
ing forest ; at Copenhagen there is an entrance examination, and a course
of from four to six years ; in Germany, after leaving a first-class school the
student has a year's practical work in the forest, two or two and a half years
in the forest school, and then two more years' practical work before he is
eligible for a Government office ; in Austria and Poland the course extends
over three years, and at Evois in Finland over two. Nearly all these
schools agree in having an entrance examination, which generally includes
the native language, mathemathics, chemistry, physical geography, and
sometimes a foreign language. The limit of age at entrance varies from
twenty to twenty-three. Nearly all the continental schools are adjacent to
forests of considerable extent under State control.

Now in the prospectus of this College, I see there are professors of
chemistry, of geology, botany, and zoology, of mathematics and physics, of
land surveying and engineering, of book-keeping, of agricultural law, and of
estate management. In such an institution the courses are continually
overlapping, one professor touching incidentally on the province of another;
but, though I venture to think all the courses I have mentioned most useful
to a forest student, and though the elements of forestry and the law of
woods and forests are included in the syllabuses of two of your present
staff, I yet consider the establishment of a chair of sylivculture and
Forest Economy necessary to enable you to add a thoroughly equipped
faculty of forestry to that of agriculture. To this end, as I Lave intimated,
you might, I think, well claim State aid.

i 2 Science and Teaching of Porestry.

In addition to your Botanic Garden, Meteorological Instruments and
excellent Laboratories and Museum, you have within a day's easy travelling
the best-managed and most instructive State forest in England. Here in
addition to plantations of Scotch and other firs and of beech, we have
forests of oak, that M. Boppe on his late visit expressly pointed out as
affording a first-rate study in the management of such trees. It has
occurred to me that as some of you sometimes arrange to devote an entire
fortnight to the study of cheese making in the Cheddar district, so arrange-
ments might be made for forest students to reside in the Forest of Dean
during some of the busier times of the year. I suppose, moreover, that
facilities might be obtained for the study of ordinary arboricultural pro-
cesses nearer home in Lord Bathurst's beautiful woods.

With these few practical suggestions as to the teaching of forestry here,
I must conclude, acknowledging my indebtedness to the writings of my
friends Dr. Cleghorn and Colonel Pearson, and still more to you for the
attentive hearing you have accorded me.

WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, PRINTERS, LONDON.

Part VIIL

* —

LABIATARUM

GENERA ET SPECIES:

OB,

A DESCRIPTION

THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF PLANTS

ORDER LABIATE;

WITH THEIR

GENERAL HISTORY, CHARACTERS, AFFINITIES,
AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

BY GEORGE BENTHAM, ESQ., F.L.S.

LONDON:

JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, PICCADILLY.

M.DCCC. XXXVI.

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