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Government. Ordinarily the free students merely attend the lectures, and as a 

 matter of course, are not examined ; but the English students have to pass all 

 the school examinations. 



THE SECONDARY AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT BARRES. 



The secondary school was established in 1883, in order to train a class of 

 men who should occupy an intermediate position between the officers of the 

 superior and those of the subordinate staff. Of the students who entered in that 

 year, seventeen passed out as head guards, and one of these has been promoted 

 to the superior staff as a sub-assistant-inspector. But the school was reorganized 

 in 1884, and it is now maintained in order to facilitate the entrance of subordi- 

 nates into the superior staff, by completing the education of such of them as may 

 be deemed otherwise fitted for advancement. Candidates for admission to the 

 school are selected by the conservators from among those of their head guards 

 and guards who are thought to possess the needful qualifications, and to be 

 capable of passing the required educational tests ; ordinarily, they must have 

 completed four years' service in the forests, and be under thirty-five years of 

 age, but passed students of the primary school can be admitted after two years' 

 service in the forests. They are subjected to an entrance examination in the 

 following subjects, viz., Dictation, elementary geometry, French history, French 

 geography, timber measurement, the selection and marking of trees to be felled 

 or reserved, and the duties of forest subordinates generally. 



The director of the school is a conservator of forests, who receives the pay 

 of his grade and free quarters ; he is aided in the administration and teaching by 

 two assistant- inspectors, each of whom receives an allowance of 40 a year in 

 addition to his pay. Teachers who are not forest officers can be employed when 

 their services are required. As is the case at Nancy, the director and the 

 professors form a council of instruction and discipline. The students all hold the 

 rank and wear the uniform of a head guard. They are lodged at the school, and 

 receive an allowance of 2 a month to provide themselves with food and clothing. 



The instruction, which extends over two years, is both general and special 

 or technical; the object being to improve the general education of the students, 

 and also to give them such a professional training, theoretical and practical, as 

 may fit them for the position they are to occupy. The course is arranged as 

 follows, viz. : 



First year, Sylviculture, the cutting up and export of wood, estimates of 

 quantity and value of timber, sales of forest produce, arithmetic and geometry , 

 the elements of algebra and trigonometry, surveying and map drawing, levelling, 

 forest law, the elements of forest botany, (including vegetable anatomy and 

 physiology, and the classification of the principal forest trees), planting and sow- 

 ing, and geography. 



Second year, Working plans, buildings and roads, the elements of mine- 

 ralogy, geology, and zoology, the treatment of torrents and dunes, forest law and 

 administration, the elements of inorganic chemistry, agriculture and agricultural 

 chemistry, literature and the geography of France. Most of the above subjects 

 are taught not only in the class room, but also practically in the forest. The 

 school is established on a property purchased before 1873 for the primary school 

 from M. Vilmorin, who had raised on it a large number of exotic trees of many 

 kinds. There is also on the estate, a small forest treated as a coppice under 

 standards, which, with the State forest of Montargis, situated at a short distance 

 from the school, is used for the practical instruction of the students. The buildings 

 comprise the residence of the director, the class-rooms, and students' quarters, as 

 well as a museum, containing collections to illustrate the various courses of study. 



