184 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Since writing the above we find that the Prussian Government 

 have, by a preUminary resolution, settled the question for the 

 time being, by raising the length of the theoretical course at 

 the academies from two years to three. A year's study at a 

 university follows as before. So something tangible has been 

 gained by the agitation, and the end is not yet. 



The Prussian academies are justly proud of their school 

 forests. Germany contains many other forests fully as well 

 managed, and, from a silvicultural point of view, perhaps even 

 more instructive, than the plains forests of Eberswalde : but 

 none have, we venture to think, such a complete and detailed 

 record of their management and of the gradual growth of their 

 working-plans. These records represent a typical example of 

 the working-plan development in Prussia, and are therefore 

 doubly interesting. They were originally compiled for the 

 St Louis Exhibition, and published in the form of a popular 

 pamphlet. They are now re-edited, for professional foresters, 

 in the Forst und Jagd Zeifung. 



It is not generally known that Frederic the Great took a 

 personal interest in forest management. Even before the Seven 

 Years' War he asked for a survey of the Prussian forests, and a 

 settled policy as regards their treatment. In 1764 he ordered, 

 in a personal resolution, the division of every forest into 70 

 sections, and the gradual abandonment of selection fellings. 



The first survey of the present school forest, at the time 

 known as the Biesenthal Forest, was begun in 1755, but war 

 intervened, and the maps were not finished till 1769. The 

 forest was divided into 70 equal compartments, to be worked 

 in annual sequence. The forest was then in a bad state owing 

 to years of spoliation by rightholders and thieves, and it was 

 evident that a literal adherence to the royal order spelt ruin. 

 To meet the difficulty, each block containing 70 compartments 

 was divided into two parts, each containing 70 sections, half 

 the size of the original ones. This, with the prescription that 

 no forest which had not already attained the age of 70 years 

 was to be worked during the first period of 70 years, would 

 have secured a 140 years' rotation; but during the king's life- 

 time the subterfuge failed, and till 1786 the forest had to yield 

 10,000 to 20,000 cubic metres per annum. 



However, though the provisions, so cleverly thought out, had 

 no effect till 1786, they saved the situation during the revision 



