122 



THE FORESTER. 



June, 



birds, something unusual for Italy, where 

 formerly birds of every kind were cap- 

 tured for the pot in a wholesale fashion, 

 by means of ingenious nets. A few 

 sheep were visible, rambling amongst the 

 herbage. Here and there choppers were 

 cutting the young chestnut trees for vine 

 props, stripping off the bark, dipping the 

 ends in tar, and binding up the fagots. 



In season, many peasants are occu- 

 pied in picking the wild strawberries and 

 raspberries and gathering mushrooms. 

 A large income is yielded by the chest- 

 nuts, from the flour of which the bread 

 of the peasants is made. 



In the course of an hour the train 

 reaches Saltino, the terminus. Below 

 one, stretching for miles, is the well- 

 tilled valley of the Arno ; all about one 

 the bare mountain tops of the Apen- 

 nines ; and plainly in the distance the 

 famous city of Florence, with its exten- 

 sive gardens and treasures of art. 



About half a mile from the station of 

 Saltino, the beautiful silver fir forests of 

 Vallombrosa begin. The trees are large, 

 with tall, straight boles and dense, dark 

 green canopy. The air is fragrant with 

 the orange perfume exhaled by the 

 leaves in the sunshine. One could easily 

 imagine himself in the midst of the Black 

 Forest at Herrenwies or St Blasien. 



The trees are in lines, betraying the 

 fact that they had been planted. In 

 truth the whole of the forests of Vallom- 

 brosa were planted by the patient and in- 

 dustrious Benedictine monks, who were 

 arduous agriculturists and foresters dur- 

 ing the Dark Ages. It is to them in fact 

 that civilization owes much, and it was 

 often with much injustice that their prop- 

 erties were confiscated and their treasures 

 of art and science injured or destroyed. 

 Some beautiful stems, fit for the masts 

 of ships, were piled by the wayside. 

 They seemed almost out of place in a 

 land where twigs and fuel are often sold 

 by weight, and where a decent fire is the 

 greatest of all luxuries. 



Soon one reaches an open meadow, 

 surrounded on all but one of its sides by 

 the amphitheater of green, forest-clad 



hills. It was here, in about the year 

 1015, that San Giovanni Gualberto 

 founded the famous monastery of Vall- 

 ombrosa, under peculiar circumstances 

 too lengthy to describe in this connection. 

 Above the Silver Fir on the mountain 

 side a fine forest of old Beech is visible. 

 The Silver F"ir being more hardy is 

 usually above the Beech. In order of 

 hardiness there comes first the Spruce,, 

 then the Silver Fir, then the Red Beech, 

 and then the Chestnut. The monks, no 

 doubt, had' some special purpose in 

 placing the Beech above the Fir. They 

 raised many pigs which fed upon the 

 mast. 



In front of the thick-walled monastery 

 is the Albergo della Foresta, which is 

 large and comfortable. Near by there is 

 an old sawmill and ponds built by the 

 monks for the collection of ice. The 

 water here is excellent, coming from a 

 famous spring which was long supposed 

 to have great curative properties. Sev- 

 eral students dressed in uniform were 

 working in the nurseries. They are 

 called to their work by bugle blasts. 



We presented our cards and were most 

 cordially received by the director, Comm. 

 F. Piccioli, and his accomplished 

 daughter, both of whom speak German 

 and French. Director Piccioli was sent 

 by his government to France to study 

 the reforestation of mountains, and his 

 report, entitled "Sui Rimboschimenti 

 Eseguiti in Francia," appeared in 1887. 

 We were shown the museum, the 

 library, the dormitory, the queer old 

 kitchen and the refectory, with many 

 portraits on the walls, including one of 

 Gualberto, the founder of the monastery. 

 The institution has eight professors and 

 about 35 students. These students are 

 of two classes those who expect gov- 

 ernment work and those who do not. 

 The Italian Government possesses only 

 about 50,000 hectares of forest, so that 

 the number of foresters needed is not 

 large and their pay is small. The stu- 

 dents have four months vacation in win- 

 ter. From the prospectus the regulations 

 seem rather strict. The course covers 



