S^fS The y 021 ma I of Forestry. 



chiefly its suitability for employment as a means of instruction — but 

 the variety of kinds of trees, of modes of treatment, of exploitation, 

 and of technical applications of the products. And that was the most 

 suitable in which the greatest number of these could be most easily ob- 

 tained. Looked at thus, a very great advantage of many of the forest 

 academies was possessed by many of ihe universities. And further, in 

 the selection of localities for forest academies it was not a regard to 

 the vicinity of the forest which was always the primary determining 

 motive. Economical considerations had, in many cases, decided the 

 location ; and when it was not so, then it was often the case that a con- 

 sideration of the interests of the town had a greater weight than had the 

 peculiarities of the forest. 



And the second assumption, said he, will not bear examination. 

 Science and practical work are not antagonistic to each other. And of 

 the Hochschulen, do not all offer the same facilities for practical demon- 

 strations as do the forest academies? Their facilities for forest excursions 

 must not be left out of view, further, there is no certainty whatever that 

 the teacher in a forest academy has had any training in practical forestry, 

 or that the forester educated in a Hochschule shall prove a mere theorist. 

 The assumption that the foresters of Baden, of Hesse, or of Switzer- 

 land are inferior in practical skill and eflBciency is not in accordance 

 with fact. It is acknowledged on all hands th^ the forests in these 

 lands are well managed. And he argued that if the one class of insti- 

 tutions produced men equally skilful in the practical application of ' 

 the acquired knowledge as did the other, it was desirable that the more 

 extended instruction of the Hoclischule, or of the universities, should be 

 obtained ; and that it was no advantage, but the contrary, for the 

 practical man to have no information on the subjects studied by him 

 beyond those applied by him in the discharge of his duties. 



He denied that it was, as alleged, the case, that the studies in the 

 universities were too general and comprehensive ; that no application 

 of them to forestry would there be taught ; and that forest aca- 

 demy instruction in the auxiliary sciences was limited. In the 

 former the instruction did not go beyond what was desirable for every 

 educated man ; and it was not desirable that an impression should go 

 abroad that students of forestry had made choice of that department of 

 study be(!ause it made the least demand upon them. That it was not 

 true, as a matter of fact, that the teachers of the fundamental sciences in 

 these did not make use of illustrations from life in the forest, but 

 that they did so whensoever occasion served ; and there were in them 

 special teachers of these special subjects, as, for example, in Giessen, 

 where there were special instructions given in forest botany, forest 

 entomology, and forest mensuration and surveying, &c. That it was 



