FORESTRY IN HUNGARY. 



27 



Forest Schools. 



Tlie Academy at Selmeczhdnya. — The institution at Selmeczbanya 

 was opened as a school of mines in 1770, but a forest class was 

 added in 1808; some idea of the development of which maybe 

 obtained from an inspection of the following figures, showing the 

 numbers of forest professors and students at various periods : 



1808- 9, 

 1809-10, 

 1814-15, 

 1821-22, 

 1833-34, 

 1865-66, 

 1867-68, 

 1872-73, 

 1873-74, 

 1882-83, 

 1884-85, 



This branch is now by far the most important, there being 325 

 forest students, and only 80 miners. A forest officer of high rank 

 has charge of it, under the control of the Director, who is a mining 

 engineer. 



Young men who have completed their studies at the High 

 School, and passed as Bachelors of Letters or of Science, are 

 eligible for admission. The ordinary course of studies extends 

 over three years, but candidates for appointments as forest en- 

 gineers remain an additional year, in order to complete their studies 

 in mechanics and architecture. All regular students must go 

 through the entire ordinary course, and are examined every six 

 months before a special commissioner, in order to test the amount 

 of progress they have made. Fees are not charged, and twenty 

 scholarships, of £24 each, are given to those among the poorer 

 students who are found to have done the best. 



The courses of mathematics, physics, geometry, and architecture, 

 which are conducted by professors belonging to the school of mines, 

 are the same for the miners and the foresters, and there are no 

 special professors for chemistry and forest botany. In the opinion 

 of the heads of the Forest Department, the present organisation is 

 unsatisfactory, the following being the principal objections taken 

 to it. The school is under the Minister of Finance, instead of 



