39 



language. The course gone through at the latter was previously 

 extended over one year, but according to a regulation issued this year, 

 it will now be a two-year course, as is the case with the other, .Finnish 

 schools. For entrance, elementary school education is demanded. 

 The teaching comprises practical forestry work and sufficient theory 

 for the pupils to understand the former. The intention of the schools 

 is the forming of a class of expert forestry foremen, for which the State, 

 the forest industries, agricultural societies, forestry societies, co-opera- 

 tive forest associations and the owners of large private forests have 

 found increasing employment. Latterly, the schools have turned out 

 70 80 forestry foremen each year. In the autumn of 1921, the 

 first term in the Finnish Sawmills Industries School was begun, a 

 school kept up partly by the State and partly by private subscription. 

 It contains two separate departments: one for turning out foremen for 

 the sawmills, the other for forestry and rafting foremen. The course 

 lasts one year. This school has long been needed, as the lack, parti- 

 cularly of trained sawmill foremen has been very great. 



Higher education in forestry has since 1908 been 

 given at the University of Helsinki (Helsingfors). after the closing of 

 the Evo School of Forestry. The average duration of study for the 

 forestry examination averages 3 4 years. Besides theoretical stu- 

 dies, two summers, practice in forestry is enforced, the work for the 

 latter being specially arranged in the State forests. For permanent 

 State service an additional year's practice is demanded after the ex- 

 amination. Degrees can be taken at the University with silviculture 

 and forest management as chief subjects, doctor's degrees even, 

 which latter has proved extremely fruitful from the point of view of 

 scientific investigation in forestry. 



A forest research institute was established in Fin- 

 land in 1917. It is kept up by the State, its purpose being the study 

 of questions important for forest economy by scientific methods, 

 whose application by private individuals would for one reason or 

 other be extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible. The insti- 

 tution is divided into three sections, each with its own special branch 

 of work, viz., silviculture, forest management and the science of soils. 

 Each section is directed by a professor, of whom the same qualifica- 

 tions as those for university professorship are demanded, and in 

 addition, experience in practical forestry, in order that he should 

 be able to judge rightly the practical value of the various investi- 

 gations that crop up. Each section has further one assistant. The 

 results of investigations are published in a series: Metsdtieteellisen 

 Koelaitoksen julkaisuja, Communication's ex Institute questionum 

 forestalium Finlandiae editae, of which four volumes have hitherto 

 appeared . 



