CONTINENTAL NOTES GERMANY. 227 



not due to this cause, and that some of it could be accounted 

 for by natural causes. Though he did not state the fact 

 expressly, it is permissible to conclude that his opinion was 

 largely based upon the admitted difficulty of distinguishing, 

 at this date, between pathogenic and inocuous fungi, the 

 difficulty round which so much of the cross-examination of 

 the experts centred It is, however, not easy for anyone 

 acquainted with the conditions of plant life to believe that in 

 extensive plantations, showing very well-marked and uniform 

 diseased conditions, the disease could be due in one place to 

 fungi, in another to insects, in another to fumes, and in another 

 to unfavourable soil. To admit also that the fumes had caused 

 some damage, made it difficult to avoid the conclusion that they 

 were responsible for the observed difference in the appearance 

 of the plantations before and after the beginning of the process 

 of calcination. Now that further research on fungi has done 

 much to remove the ambiguity which, in 1881, hung over the 

 question of " root-fungi," it is difficult to come to any other 

 conclusion than that which was reached by the various courts 

 before which the case was tried — that is, that the trees were 

 injuriously affected by the sulphurous fumes. 



30. Continental Notes — Germany, 



By Bert. Ribbentrop, CLE. 

 {With Two Plates.) 



The great fight over the educational question of the rising 

 generation of forest officers in Germany is over; there is peace 

 or at least an armistice. Both parties remain where they were 

 at the outset of the contest, but the Academies have obtained 

 a substantial gain in a more liberal financial support from their 

 Government, owing to which their capacity, both as regards 

 technical education and practical research, has been con- 

 siderably enhanced. Whatever may be the general opinion on 

 the comparative educational merits, between Academies and 

 Universities, it cannot be gainsaid that the former are taking 

 the lead in practical research regarding several of the most 

 important forest questions of the time. 



