NOTES ON CONTINENTAL FORESTRY, 1 65 



Early in 1904, the "Practical School of Sylviculture/' formed 

 on the Barres estate at Nogent-sur-Vernisson (Loiret), was trans- 

 formed into a " School of Technical and Practical Instruction for 

 Guards of Woods and Waters." The new course of technical in- 

 struction, extending over ten months (15th October to 15th August), 

 and combined with professional (outdoor) teaching, includes 

 the following branches, taught on four days in each week: — 

 (i) elementary ideas {^'■des notions tres elementah-es ") of sylviculture 

 and artificial regeneration, management of forests, and sale and 

 extraction of wood, 30 lessons : (2) forest law and prosecutions, 

 so far as concerns forest-guards, 20 lessons : (3) mensuration of 

 area and volume, 20 lessons; elementary surveying, plan-drawing, 

 and levelling, 1 5 lessons : (4) " elementary notions " of works 

 carried out in the forests and mountains, 25 lessons: (5) sport 

 and poaching ; rearing, maintaining, and protecting game ; 

 trapping and destroying vermin ; the protection of useful birds, 

 10 lessons: (6) fishing and poaching on rivers; protection of fish; 

 pisciculture, 10 lessons: (7) French spelling and composition, 

 50 lessons. In addition to the above, outdoor teaching is given 

 on two days a week in the neighbouring forests. It is striking 

 to note that out of the 180 indoor lessons, no fewer than 50 

 (or 28 per cent.) should be considered necessary in '■'■orthographic, 

 redaction^'' or spelling and composition of their own language. 



Also of interest are the facts, that on 19th March 1904, a 

 retired forest officer was appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture 

 to deliver lectures On Sylviculture in the National School of 

 Agriculture at Grignon, and that there is a Practical School 

 of Agriculture and Sylviculture at St Pau, near Sos (Lot-et- 

 Garonne), at which bursaries are given to lads of not less than 

 fourteen years old. 



Interesting articles deal with the forests of Morocco, the 

 Balearic Isles, Siberia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United 

 States, and also with the forestry question in Italy. For France, 

 the Morocco forests have a particular interest at present. In the 

 north, the cork oak is one of the chief trees, in the central region 

 the Atlas cedar {Cednis atlaiitica), and in the south Argania 

 sideroxylon, an equatorial species of iron wood. 



In Italy, the forest question is much the same as in Britain. 

 The forests still left are insufficient to meet the growing national 

 requirements in wood, and in 1902 the imports were valued at 

 close on ^2,500,000, nearly five-sixths of which came from Austria- 



