272 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
If the number of students passed annually through the school be 
taken as sixteen and a-half, the actual expenditure per head, for 
the entire period of two years’ residence, is £298 ; but if interest 
at 4 per cent. on the estimated capital value of the buildings 
and collections (£22,000) be added, the annual expenditure 
becomes £5702, and the amount spent by the State on each 
student, during the period of his training, is raised to about £350. 
Each year of study at the school comprises six and a-half 
months of theoretical, and two and a-half months of practical, 
instruction ; one month being devoted to examinations, and there 
being two months of vacation. During the period devoted to 
theoretical instruction, the following subjects are taught, viz. :— 
First year: Sylviculture in all its branches; botany, including 
vegetable anatomy and physiology, as well as the classification 
of plants and their geographical distribution, special attention 
being paid to forest trees and shrubs; political economy, with 
special reference to forests ; forest statistics ; law, including forest 
laws and rules, together with such general knowledge of the 
common law of the country as is judged necessary ; surveying 
and the construction of roads; the German language ; military 
science; riding. Second year: Working plans or schemes of 
forest management; mineralogy and geology, with special reference 
to the chemical and physical properties of forest soils ; zoology, 
especially the branch relating to the insects which attack 
trees; agriculture; buildings, including houses, saw-mills, and 
bridges ; the treatment of torrent beds, including the construction 
of masonry and other weirs. The teaching of surveying, law, the 
German language, military science, and riding is continued. During 
the last month of each theoretical course, weekly excursions are 
made into the forest ; but with the exception of this and the riding- 
drill the whole of the instruction is given in the class-rooms. 
The practical course, which occupies two and a-half months of 
each year, or five months in all, consists of tours made into the 
forests in the neighbourhood of Nancy, as well as into those of 
the Vosges and Jura, and occasionally to other localities, for the 
purpose of studying forestry, natural history, and surveying, a 
part of the time being devoted to military exercises. An area of 
7500 acres of forest, situated near Nancy, and placed under the 
Director of the school, is used as a field of practical instruction, 
as well as for various experiments and researches, to carry out 
which an assistant-inspector is attached to the staff. The subjects 
