96 Wisconsin Statb Horticultural Society. 



igable, cold winds blasting the orchards and intensifying disease, 

 the derangement of the seasons, and, in the older states, the 

 abandonment of lands once fertile. Our country is so wide, so 

 long, so rich, so big every way, that it can stand all this, and 

 much more, and scarcely notice the loss, but, nevertheless, we 

 cannot afford it, for when once we have used up our resources, 

 centuries will but gradually restore them. The great laboratories 

 of nature work by ages rather than days and hours. 



As the experience of Europe points out the danger, so we 

 must look to her for a remedy. In every European state the 

 care of the forests now forms an important branch of govern- 

 mental concern, and largely occupies the minds of the people. 

 Only six of them now have more than twenty-five per cent, of 

 forest area, and only four — Norway and Sweden, Russia, Ger- 

 many and Belgium — yield more than they consume. Even 

 Russia, which, like America, is credited with inexhaustible sup- 

 plies, reports but forty per cent, of woodland, and the government, 

 finding the great artery of Russian commerce, the Volga river, 

 annually shrinking, and alarmed at the enormous waste in her 

 forests, has begun extensive plantations, established forest acad- 

 emies, and is endeavoring to introduce economical management. 

 The feature most essential to the efficient working of these forest 

 departments of state, as well as perhaps most striking to an 

 American, is the system of forest schools. There are thirty or 

 more of these academies in Europe, the best "being in Ger- 

 many and France. In the German schools, the period of 

 study and practice extends over five years, and, before entering, 

 the candidate must pass the standard of the gymnasium, a re- 

 quirement equivalent to the degree of A. B, from an American 

 college. The curriculum embraces three years in the natural sci- 

 ences, mechanics, forest legislation and police, and other branchics 

 of theoretical forestry, and two years of practical study in the 

 forest. After this, if the pupil passes his final examinations, he 

 heoomes an oher forsier Kandidat, and is expected to spend five 

 years more in waiting, performing various duties as assistant in 

 the meanwhile, before he obtains a permanent appoint- 

 ment as oher forster. Yet so eagerly is the profession 



