50 Forestry Quarterly. 



and what is more important, the Government, will be saved many 

 of the costly mistakes due to inexperience. 



Part 2. 71te Ranger Branch. 



The Prussian Ranger (Forster) is a trained forester. His 

 "cursus honorum" is as definite as that of his technical superior. 

 His position in the community is a high one; he feels a just pride 

 in his calling. 



Prussian rangers are "caught young.'' They usually enter the 

 ranger schools at the age of eighteen and even before that they 

 must have spent a year as apprentices on an Oberforsterei in 

 order to learn something of what forests and forestry mean. In 

 accepting applications to the ranger service, preference is given to 

 the sons of Prussian rangers. The entrance requirements are 

 quite rigid : Physically the applicant must be at least 5 feet 3 

 inches tall with proportionate chest development, must be free 

 from organic or chronic diseases, and must be able to see, hear 

 and speak perfectly. Mentally his training must have progressed 

 to Tertia in the Gymnasium — equivalent to senior year in our 

 High Schools. 



Prussia has four state schools for rangers (at Steinbusch, 

 Margoninsdorf, Spangenberg, and Hachenburg) and one private 

 school at Templin. This last was founded by the German so- 

 ciety of foresters m private employ (Verein fiir Privatforstbeamte 

 Deutschlands) for the training of rangers for private work. All 

 five of these Forstlehrlingschulen are run on the same principles. 

 Each has between 40 and 50 students, chosen from among 3 to 4 

 times the number of applicants. 



The schooling lasts a year. Tuition, board and lodging all to- 

 gether cost each pupil $10.00 per month ; not counting the annual 

 payment of 24 cents for compulsory insurance.* Where the boy's 

 father is a Prussian forester whose means do not suffice to pay 

 the school dues, these may be waived. 



The course of instruction comprises : 



1. Silviculture in connection with Dendrology and Ecology. 



2. Lumbering and road building. 



*This arrangement similar to our Government Employees Mutual Relief 

 Association provides $250 payment in case of death, $3,125.00 in case of 

 permanent disability, 36 cents per day in case of temporary disability and 

 payment of all medicines, doctors, fees, etc., from the first day of illness. 



