388 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURA.L SOCIETY. 



Having finished the above mentioned studies the student is grad- 

 uated; but he is not yet allowed to enter the forestry service as a 

 commissioned officer. He must pass from five to six years in the 

 forest before he can do that. Then after passing a final examina- 

 tion he receives his commission as overforester, and the way to pro- 

 motion is open. 



THE ADMINISTRATIOX. 



Just one word as to the service to which he is then admitted. In 

 Saxony and in most of the European countries it is constituted as 

 follows: The commissioned officers are recruited entirely from the 

 schools. Thej^ are of four grades ; overforesters, forest-masters, 

 overforest-masters and directors. All the forests of the country 

 are controlled by one or more directors residing at the capital. 

 Each separate forest is entrusted to an overforest-master; the dif- 

 ferent districts of the forest to forest- masters; and the sub-dis- 

 tricts or compartments to overforesters. These commissioned 

 officers wear a uniform, rank with the army and navy officers and 

 receive in some cases even higher pay, and are held in the highest 

 respect by the communitj'. 



Each overforester works his compartment with the aid of various 

 subordinates, foresters, vinder-foresters, guards, planters, and for- 

 estry graduates, the rank and file of the forest armj\ 



OUTLOOK FOR AMERICA. 



A closing word, gentlemen, as to the application of this subject to 

 American affairs. America has but just awakened; but she is 

 awake. Witness the state parks set aside recently in New York, Wis- 

 consin and California, and the attempts in that direction in Minne- 

 sota. Witness the recent creation of forest reserves by the national 

 government in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Wash- 

 ington and California; and similar work attempted in Minnesota. 

 And lastl3% witness the study of forestry taken up in the schools of 

 the country, and in this particular Minnesota has not lagged behind 

 but stands fairly in the front rank. One of the few courses given 

 in forestry in America is given at our Minnesota School of Agri- 

 culture. Prof. Green conducts a forestrj- class three days in the 

 week, for a period of twelve weeks each year. This is but a taste of 

 the subject, and that more from the agricultural than from the for- 

 estal point of view. And yet that taste is sufficient to make the stu- 

 dent the friend of the forest instead of its natural enemy, as man is 

 said to be; and to inspire him with aspirations for a fuller forestry 

 education and a better administration of our forests; and, thus, this 

 work at St. Anthony Park, it is to be hoped, may be the seed from 

 which a good school of forestry may sometime spring up in 

 Minnesota. 



