FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 269 
Minister, and its various units assemble at previously determined 
points. The students of the Forest School at Nancy receive mili- 
tary instruction and are drilled, the time passed at the school 
ecunting as service with the colours. The officers of the superior 
staff hold rank as officers of the reserve, or of the territorial army, 
and in time of war may be employed either in command of the 
companies and sections of the Forest Corps, or otherwise as 
may be ordered. From the day that they are called out, the com- 
panies form an integral part of the army, and enjoy the same rights, 
honours, and rewards as the other troops which compose it. They 
are inspected by their own officers annually in time of peace, and 
the head-guards and guards, who form the non-commissioned 
officers and rank and file of the companies, enjoy at all times certain 
privileges as soldiers. 
In virtue of this service, a military uniform is prescribed 
for all grades, including the students at the schools. The sub- 
ordinates wear it always; and the officers do so on all cere- 
monial occasions, including official inspections of the forests by 
their superiors. 
CHAPTER V. 
FOREST SCHOOLS. 
Tue HIGHER ScHooLt at NANCY. 
The Forest School at Nancy is the only one existing in France for 
the training of officers of the superior staff. It was founded in 1824, 
before which year the Department was recruited either by means of 
young men, often of good family, who worked gratuitously in the 
inspectors’ offices in the hope of ultimately obtaining an appoint- 
ment, or by means of retired officers of the army. Very few forest 
officers received, under the old system, a professional training 
sufficient to enable them to discharge their duties satisfactorily ; 
and it was to remedy this state of things that the school was 
established. The arrangements were modest at first; but a great 
development has taken place during the sixty-two years that have 
elapsed since 1824. The present organisation of the school will 
now be briefly described. 
