Education and Literature. 183 



fund. Another fund for forest improvement is accu- 

 mulated by placing four-fifths of all penalties collected 

 for forest trespasses into a separate account for that 

 purpose. These funds have not accumulated very- 

 fast, the forest improvement fund, in 1896, being only 

 about $120,000. 



Similar to the Landes in France, there exist in 

 various parts of Hungary extensive sand wastes and 

 shifting sands, partly caused by deforestation. Ever 

 since 1788, legislation has attempted to secure a re- 

 habilitation of these waste areas, which cover in all 

 some 600 square miles. In 1817, a first systematic 

 beginning was made in the Banat, on the "Alfold" 

 of the Magyars, under the forest director Bachofen, 

 similar to Bremontier s undertaking in France. By 

 1842, the total plantations amounted to about 12,000 

 acres, and by 1869, some 20,000 acres had been re- 

 forested, and parts of the plantations had begun to 

 yield profits. But even to-day, there are still large 

 areas in a desert condition. 



A classic volume in German by Joseph Wessely, 

 Hungarian forest director, Der europaische Flugsand 

 und seine Ktdtur, describes in detail the principles 

 and methods of reclamation of shifting sands. 



Most of the Hungarian forestry literature being 

 written in the Magyar language, is inaccessible to 

 the rest of the world. 



Efforts by private endeavor to promote forestry 

 education date back as early as 1796, when Forest 

 Inspector Vizner opened an elementary forest school 

 and wrote a forestry catechism. 



This effort was followed, in 1806, by introducing the 



