SCHOOLS OF FOEESTRY. 



617 



opportunity of studying how to prepare the scientific solution of interesting and impor- 

 tant problems, and of taking their own share in the respective elaborations.' 



The results of active instruction at this academy during the forty-six years of its 

 existence are highly satisfactory. Almost all the Prussian employes near the adminis- 

 tration of public forests — without, however, counting those from the provinces added 

 to Prussia in 186(i, and who entered into Prussian service — owe their perfection in 

 forest science to this academy. Besides a considerable number of private forest officers 

 and forest proprietors of the country have here acquired the necessary skill in admin- 

 istering their own forests or those committed to their charge. Finally, many foreign- 

 ers have applied themselves at this academy to the study of forest science. The fol- 

 lowing table, showing the annual number of students from 1830 to 1876, may be of 

 good service in j udging of the academy's operation : 



Attendance at the Forest Academy of Neuatadt-Eberawalde. 



(o) Closed on accoant of war. 



This place is about twenty-four miles northeast of Berlin. There is connected with 

 it a drying-house for seeds, extensive seed-beds and nurseries, specimens of trees in 

 great variety for botanical study, including many of the rarer kinds, and a museum 

 rich in specimens of birds, animals, and insects found in forests, very neatly arranged 

 in cases.2 



1 The division of these experiments among the different oflQcers of the academy is as 

 follows: Forest division, Forstmeister Bernhardt; meteorology, Prof. Dr. Miittrich ; 

 chemical and physical division, Prof. Schiilz ; vegetable physiology. Prof. Dr. Hartig ; 

 zoology. Prof. Dr. Altum. Oberforste-candidate Eberts assists in the forest division. 

 Forstmeister Gerding is assistant in the meteorological division. 



2 Captain Campbell Walker, now chief conservator of forests in New Zealand, in writ- 

 ing an account of a visit to this place, concerning the arrangement of the museum, 

 &c., says : 



•' Where an animal or insect does damage to trees, specimens of the branch, bark, leaf, 

 wood, or cone in a healthy state, and after being attacked, are exhibited close to each 

 other, so that the student can see at a glance the nature of the damage, and connect 

 it with the animal that causes it. Thus we have squirrels, rats, beavers, and mice set up 

 BO as to represent nature, gnawing at the barks, grubbing at the roots, &c. Insects are 

 shown in the several stages of their existence, larva, chrysalis, caterpillar, or moth, with 

 their ramifications in the stems or branches of the tree. These, with specimen blocks 

 of almost all descriptions of timber, form a most instructive and interesting collection, 

 in which much time could be spent with adwintage. 



"Nothing struck me as more remarkable, than the extent and varied nature of tho 

 studies required from forest candidates or probationers in Prussia, and the number of 

 years they are contented to spend, first in studying, and then in waiting for an ap- 

 pointment. The would-be Oherfbrster, which is the lowest of what we would call the 

 ' gazette appointments,' must, after passing certain terms at a government school of 

 the first class, spend a year with an Oberforster in a Rrvier, and then pass an exami- 

 nation at a forest academy, and an examination in scientific forestry, land-surveying, 

 «tc., on passing which the pupil becomes a 'Foreikandidat;' — then another two years 

 of practical study, during at least nine months of which he must actually perform the 

 duties of a forester, after which comes the final government examination, on passing 



