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Science and Teaching of Forestry. 1 1 



Forest students require the stimulating prospect of Government employ- 

 ment. In Germany there are abundant competitors, though the training 

 involves five years study without pay, and five years probation with but 

 meagre allowances. The cost of education is naturally in inverse proportion 

 to the number of pupils, so that it would probably not be remunerative for 

 a private person to teach forestry in this country without State aid. I am 

 inclined to think that two or three endowed chairs of forestry, as suggested 

 by M. Boppe, an open competitive examination under Government, similar 

 to that by which candidates are selected for the Civil Service of India, and 

 perhaps a few scholarships like those established by the Government of 

 Bengal in connection with this college, would be the cheapest, and perhaps 

 the best means of inaugurating the teaching of forestry in the head-quarters 

 of our empire. 



In Germany it is the prevailing opinion that forestry acquires a more 

 dignified position, and is more thoroughly taught when the school of forestry 

 is not a distinct institution, but is affiliated to a university, a polytechnic, a 

 school of engineering or of agriculture. Thus at Giessen it is associated 

 with the University, at Carlsruhe with the Polytechnic, and at Copenhagen 

 Tharant in Saxony, Hohenheim in Wurtemburg, Nova Alexandria, St. 

 Petersburg and Petroffsky with a College of Agriculture. 



When the Forest School at Nancy was established in 1827, there were 

 only three professors, besides masters for drawing and German, viz., one of 

 natural history, one of mathematics and one of forest economy, legislation 

 and jurisprudence. There are now eight. At Aschaffenburg in Bavaria there 

 are four professors, viz., of forestry, of forest law, of natural science, and of 

 mechanics and engineering. In the Polytechnicum at Carlsruhe there are 

 only two professors of forest science, though the entire staff numbers forty- 

 nine, thus illustrating forcibly the advantages of affiliation. 



The course of instruction varies considerably in the different continental 

 schools. At Nancy pupils enter by competition, when between 18 and 20, 

 and remain two years in the school, and a third as apprentices in the adjoin- 

 ing forest ; at Copenhagen there is an entrance examination, and a course 

 of from four to six years ; in Germany, after leaving a first-class school the 

 student has a year's practical work in the forest, two or two and a half years 

 in the forest school, and then two more years' practical work before he is 

 eligible for a Government office ; in Austria and Poland the course extends 

 over three years, and at Evois in Finland over two. Nearly all these 

 schools agree in having an entrance examination, which generally includes 

 the native language, mathemathics, chemistry, physical geography, and 

 sometimes a foreign language. The limit of age at entrance varies from 

 twenty to twenty-three. Nearly all the continental schools are adjacent to 

 forests of considerable extent under State control. 



Now in the prospectus of this College, I see there are professors of 

 chemistry, of geology, botany, and zoology, of mathematics and physics, of 

 land surveying and engineering, of book-keeping, of agricultural law, and of 

 estate management. In such an institution the courses are continually 

 overlapping, one professor touching incidentally on the province of another; 

 but, though I venture to think all the courses I have mentioned most useful 

 to a forest student, and though the elements of forestry and the law of 

 woods and forests are included in the syllabuses of two of your present 

 staff, I yet consider the establishment of a chair of sylivculture and 

 Forest Economy necessary to enable you to add a thoroughly equipped 

 faculty of forestry to that of agriculture. To this end, as I Lave intimated, 

 you might, I think, well claim State aid. 



