November 18, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



691 



the basket willow (by W. F. Hubbard) and 

 Bulletin , 53 to the occurrence, soil-require- 

 ments and cultivation of the chestnut in 

 southern Maryland. Both papers are well 

 written and must prove very useful. — In the 

 St. Louis World's Fair the Bureau of Forestry 

 has made an outdoor exhibit including a dem- 

 onstration forest nursery, covering about one 

 fifth of an acre of ground. This valuable 

 exhibit has been made still more valuable by 

 the publication of a descriptive circular (No. 

 31) in which the plan of the work is clearly 

 explained. — Professor Stanley Coulter and H. 

 B. Domer have published a handy ' Key to 

 the Genera of the Forest Trees of Indiana,' 

 based chiefly upon leaf characters. It makes 

 a twelve-page pamphlet, which should be very 

 useful to foresters and others interested in 

 trees. — We may close these notes on trees by 

 a reference to a curious book which has lately 

 come to hand, ' The Tree Doctor,' by John 

 Davy. In a book of 87 pages and 167 half- 

 tone photographs, the author gives us a medley 

 of sense and nonsense, good practical advice 

 and suggestion, and wild theorizing, in Eng- 

 lish which is often quite as unorthodox as his 

 science. The author evidently knows how to 

 grow and care for trees, but he has not suc- 

 ceeded very well in telling us how he does it. 

 Charles E. Bessey. 

 The Untversity of Nebraska. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. 



Mr. Ernst 0. Meyer, U. S. Deputy Consul 

 at Chemnitz, writes as follows to the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor in regard to the 

 relative part taken by private initiative and 

 state aid in industrial education in Germany: 



It was quite uniformly true that in the 

 establishment of industrial schools private 

 initiative took the lead. The state generally 

 held back until the private schools had proved 

 their usefulness. Then followed a state sub- 

 sidy and a general supervisory power, and 

 finally most of the industrial schools of higher 

 rank passed over entirely into the hands of 

 the state. The German deserves gi-eat credit 

 for his enterprise and discerning powers in 

 the field of industrial education. Many im- 

 portant trade and commercial schools of to- 



day were, at the time of their establishment 

 by private individuals, attacked as wild fan- 

 tasies. Not infrequently state aid was re- 

 fused, and the individual was compelled to 

 make the best of his own educational views 

 until time vindicated his course. It is not too 

 much to say that to private enterprise prob- 

 ably belongs the greatest credit in the de- 

 velopment of Germany's unrivaled system of 

 industrial schools. It was the chambers of 

 commerce, the commercial organizations, the 

 special trade organizations, the guilds, public- 

 spirited benefactors, and men of wide educa- 

 tional discerning powers that contributed most 

 in the construction of the splendid system of 

 industrial schools. 



Nor can this reasonably be interpreted as a 

 criticism against the attitude assumed by the 

 state. Records show that this attitude from 

 the first, though not aggressive, was not hostile 

 or condemning, but highly favorable to the 

 establishment of industrial schools. It was 

 probably great wisdom on the part of the state 

 to avoid criticism at a time when criticism 

 against industrial schools was particularly 

 severe, to hold back and let private enterprise 

 prove the value and efiiciency of the schools 

 before extending its own powerful aid and 

 protection. To-day every government in the 

 Empire is intensely interested in the welfare 

 of the industrial schools. The time of ex- 

 perimentation as to their value is past. It is 

 now a question of how most economically, 

 most efliciently, and most rapidly to further 

 develop these schools. Though private initia- 

 tive in the early days broke the way, the state 

 is to-day not delinquent in following out the 

 advantages of early private experience. 



The various governments exercise a power- 

 ful infiuence over the organization and work 

 of the industrial schools and the dispensation 

 of their subsidies. The allowance of a sub- 

 sidy is generally conditioned upon the meeting 

 of certain requirements in organization, en- 

 trance requirements, curriculum and grade of 

 work. Schools which conform to the stipu- 

 lated requirements enjoy financial aid, while 

 others are assured of like aid as soon as the 

 demands of the state are met. By this means 

 it has been possible to introduce great uni- 



