With this letter, we may fitly close the contemplation of the causes
which have led to the idea of a Forestry Exhibition being held in
Great Britain. They are, in fact, briefly summed up in the short
but comprehensive dictum, which, we fear, cannot be contradicted or
gainsayed, ‘scientific forestry having hitherto been much neglected
in this country.’ And the inverse of this proposition leads us by no
indirect steps to the consideration of the good results which may be
expected to accrue from the Exhibition, if it is successfully conducted.
To the capital of Scotland, a country lying between the two great
fields of the ‘lumbering’ interest of the world—the one in Northern
Europe, and the other on the continent of America, the results, if
only from the influx of visitors, whether these are scientifically
disposed or otherwise, can hardly fail to be beneficial. But there are
wider interests involved. The landed proprietor anxious to utilise
his present wastes and to make up for deficient rents by profitable
planting—the political economist inquiring into new sources of
revenue—the botanist uncertain of the right names and uses of some of
his specimens of timber or of flowers—the geologist, the sportsman,
and the naturalist, will find here a common ground of instruction
and amusement. For we may hope to see gathered together the forest
products of the world, carefully examined and authentically named;
the various descriptions of machines used in different countries for
preparing timber for constructive purposes; the timber slips placed on
the hills, the sluices, dams, and embankments formed on the rivers for
the transporting of wood by land or by water; the mechanical appliances
used for moving growing trees, and the saw-mills for cutting them
into sections when felled. Here, too, will be exhibited the various
textile fabrics manufactured from bark; materials for the making of
paper; tanning and dyeing substances; drugs and spices; gums, resins,
wood-oils and varnishes. Another section will embrace botanical
specimens, fungi and lichens, forest entomology and natural history;
with fossil plants and the various trees found in bogs.
The literature of the subject will be illustrated by the Reports of
Forest schools, the working plans of plantations, which show the age
of the various woods on an estate, and the stage of growth at which
they may most profitably be thinned or felled. Remarkable or historical
trees will be represented by paintings, photographs, and drawings; and
there will be sketches of the usual forest operations.
Collections of forest produce, specially illustrating the sources of
supply, and the methods of manufacture in different provinces, with
accompanying Reports, are solicited by the Committee. And essays on all
subjects touching on the value of growing trees or timber are invited
to competition for prizes. Here, again, is opened a very wide field
of useful inquiry for all those interested in the planting of woods
in our own or foreign countries; for the cultivators of cinchona and
other barks in our Crown colonies; for wood-engravers, whose supply
of hard wood for the purposes of their trade is now very limited; for
ship-builders, anxious to get a substitute for teak, or to obtain an
increased supply of that most useful timber; and for all who use wood
or forest produce in any of the many forms of manufacture in which they
are applied.
We may not enter into any further categorical enumeration of the
purposes and objects of the Forestry Exhibition of 1884; for, if the
contemplation of the great cause which primarily led to the idea of
the undertaking has brought us insensibly to the enumeration of the
good that may be expected to accrue from its successful issue, it seems
needless to insist that the probable results of that success will
benefit the commercial interests and the scientific knowledge of the
world at large. [Particulars of the Exhibition may be obtained from Mr
George Cadell, secretary, 3 George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh.]