FORESTRY EDUCATION : ITS IMPORTANCE AND REQUIREMENTS. 29 



planted. Exotics are being largely introduced, and thousands 

 of plants are sent out annually from the forest garden and 

 nursery in the demonstration area into the forests all over Saxony. 

 Fencing of young planted areas and other ways of protecting 

 young plants from deer, etc., are to be seen in practice in the 

 woods. Time will not permit of my dwelling upon this excellent 

 educational demonstration area, but from his earliest course in 

 the lecture room, the student is taken out week by week into 

 the forest garden or woods, and with his own hands learns how to 

 trench, sow, plant, thin, and fell and measure up his woods ; 

 he is taught to distinguish the different species of tree, and how 

 they differ in their requirements of soil, light, moisture, etc. ; he is 

 shown on what the foundations of silviculture depend ; and is 

 gradually led, step by step and stage by stage, to understand 

 and grasp both the theory and practice of the various branches 

 of the lore of the woods comprised in forestry. 



I should like to give another instance of this educational 

 forest. The Imperial Institute of Forestry at St Petersburg is 

 probably the largest forestry college in Europe. The students 

 number 500, all training for the Controlling Staff. In addition 

 there are 33 lower grade schools scattered about the country 

 containing 15 students apiece, from which the ranks of the 

 forest rangers and upper guards are filled. Attached to the 

 Institute at St Petersburg are two educational forests, the 

 one 14 versts (9 miles) from the capital, the other and larger 

 60 versts (40 miles) away. At each of them, buildings are 

 maintained for housing the professors and students during 

 their visits. Portions of every summer are spent by the students 

 in these woods occupied in practical work. The woods 

 are entirely under the management of the Director of the 

 college, as is the case at Tharandt, and are managed on similar 

 lines and solely for demonstration purposes. The Directors at 

 both these places, as also the forestry professors (and this applies 

 to many of the continental colleges), are all practical men who 

 have themselves been through the mill of executive work, have 

 themselves held charge of large areas of woods worked entirely 

 on a commercial basis, and are therefore in a position to see 

 that the instruction given to the students is such as will return 

 full value to the State or proprietor who employs the men 

 leaving their institutions. 



This is a point which I think worthy of the most serious 



