Question

what are the changes occured under scientific forestry

Answer 1

Around 1850 Britain had no forestry service and there was no formal training of foresters. Forestry was still practised in the context of estates mainly owned by the aristocracy and managed by foresters who had learned the traditional management techniques under an apprentice system from their predecessors. British forestry was fragmented, not formalised, and far from centralised during the entire 19th century. Most of the forestry remained concentrated on large privately owned estates, especially in Scotland, where it served the double purpose of ornamental woods and, to a lesser extent, wood production for local use.1The British Government and many landowners did not feel the necessity to increase timber production and introduce modern formalised forestry practices from the continent because the British had direct access to the large timber reserves of their Empire, of Scandinavia and the Baltic states. Importing timber from overseas was much cheaper than to produce it back home in Britain.2  At the same time the expansion of commercial agriculture under the East Indian Company and later the construction of the railways seriously depleted timber resources on the Indian sub-continent. In response the colonial authorities in India created the Indian Forestry Service and introduced modern scientific forestry from continental Europe in order to prevent further destruction of the forest resources.3 Back in Britain, some Scottish landowners realised that the potential for forestry in Scotland was considerable and that by creating and expanding forestry they could make their estates more profitable. The creation of demonstration forests, university lectureships and the introduction of scientific forestry from the Continent were all desired and encouraged by Scottish landowners and forester alike. However, the needed expertise was not available in Britain and landowners and foresters had to look overseas to find people who possessed experience with the desired scientific forestry methods. In this paper it will be argued that modern British forestry is rooted within a colonial forestry ideology based on a reductionist scientific approach which originated in France and Germany. In addition it will also be shown that Scottish landowners, foresters and universities played an important part in the introduction and dissemination of scientific forestry in Britain.

Table: Key events in the introduction of scientific forestry in Britain

1854

Establishment of Scottish Arboricultural Society

1856

Dietrich Brandis introduces scientific forestry in India

1864

Creation of the Indian Forestry Service

1867

First Forestry students from India are sent to Germany and France

1872

Hugh Cleghorn elected as President of the Scottish Arboricultural Society

1877

John Croumbie Brown delivers a paper at a meeting of the Scottish Arboricultural Society calling for the creation of a forestry school in Scotland

1878

Forestry school established at Dehra Dun, India, for the training of Indian foresters

1881

Brandis retires as Inspector-general of Forests in India and is succeeded by William Schlich

1884

First International Forestry exhibition is held in Edinburgh

1885

Schlich is succeeded by Berthold Ribbentrop

1885

Forestry section at the Royal Engineering College at Coopers Hill, Surrey, established by Schlich for training of foresters for the Indian Forestry service

1889

Lectureship in forestry established at the University of Edinburgh

1891

Colonel F. Bailey appointed as Lecturer in Forestry at the University of Edinburgh

1905

Institute of forestry at Oxford University founded by Schlich

1914

Forestry course established at the University of Aberdeen

1919

Creation of the Forestry Commission in Britain

Creation of the Indian Forestry Service

In 1874, in an address to the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, Hugh Cleghorn, the first Inspector General of Forests in India4, told his audience that “the government in India began to be seriously embarrassed by the scarcity of timber; its attention was directed to the management of the indigenous forests”.5 Timber resources in India were declining rapidly under the pressures of the high timber demand in the British Empire, local use and above all the rapid expansion of colonial agriculture and the associated loss of forestry cover in India during the first half of the 19th century.6 An important watershed in the history of Indian forestry was the construction of a railway network after 1850. The network of tracks increased from only 32 kilometres in 1853 to over 51,650 kilometres in 1910. The construction of the railways required an enormous amount of timber because to build two kilometres of track almost 900 sleepers were needed. Indian trees, particular sal (Shorea robusta), deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara), and teak (Tectona grandis) were much used as sleepers, because of their strength and perceived resistance against rotting.