The attention of Her Majesty’s government has been directed to a project for an International Exhibition of Forestry to be held in Edinburgh in the summer of 1884, the organisers of which are desirous of securing the co-operation therein of such foreign countries as the matter may concern. There is reason to believe that the proposed Exhibition, for which the necessary funds have been guaranteed, will be influentially and ably supported. The object is one which in the opinion of Her Majesty’s government deserves every encouragement, scientific forestry having hitherto been much neglected in this country; and I have therefore to request that you will bring the Exhibition in question to the notice of the government to which you are accredited, as being one in which their participation might be attended with advantage to both countries. I inclose for communication to the proper quarters copies of programme and other documents connected with the proposed Exhibition, which have been supplied by the Committee.
I am, with great truth, your most obedient humble servant,
Signed (for Earl Granville)
Edmond Fitzmaurice.
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.]