FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 9 



The discipline in these schools as regards the conduct and studies of the 

 scholars, as well in school as in chambers, is very strict. 



No scholar is permitted to absent himself from the institution without 

 leave; the side arms and guns intrusted to the scholars for practice, must 

 be cleaned in the presence of the tes-chers and delivered to their care; all 

 tools used by them must be cared for in the same manner. 



If an offense against the regulations is repeated three times dismissal fol- 

 lows. 



Strict moral conduct is enforced and the scholars are continually under 

 the direct control and supervision of one of the teachers, who is also charged 

 with the duty of visiting the scholars in their rooms. 



All moneys belonging to the scholars must be deposited with the teachers, 

 who supply the depositors with the amount actually needed from the deposit 

 funds, and the parents are advised of this regulation. 



The regulations of discipline are too voluminous to be cited here in full. 

 They also differ somewhat in the different schools, but on the whole they are 

 framed in a strict military spirit, which looks upon obedience to rules of con- 

 duct as a first requisite to a successful course of study. 



A young man who has graduated from an elementary to a middle forest 

 school, and from that to the university or high school of forest culture, who 

 has obtained his diploma at the latter, and has also passed the two state ex- 

 aminations, may be said to be thoroughly fitted for his profession, and be- 

 sides undoubtedly clean, healthy, robust, and thoroughly manly in a physical 

 as well as in a moral sense. 



DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS, CAUSES AND RESULTS RECLAMATION OF WASTE 



PLACES BY TREE PLANTING. 



The causes of the destruction of forests have been the same in the old 

 world as in the new. 



The greed of men, the desire of speedy gain without reference to conse- 

 quences, the want of judgment and knowledge as to cause and effect in the 

 courses of nature and its developments, have razed and shorn the forests along 

 the spurs of the Alps and the shores of the Mediterranean with the same 

 merciless energy which has been displayed in this direction along the shores 

 of American rivers and on the slopes of American mountains. 



A great area of the shore provinces of this Empire is now almost an arid 

 desert. There is little timber in Dalmatia and Istria and in the territory 

 near Trieste. 



The dearth of timber and wooded slopes is so pronounced that the region 

 has been denominated by a particular name, "The KLarst," which in its 

 common acceptation is almost synonymous with "Sahara." 



There was a time, though not within the memory of men now living, 

 when all this region was covered with a dense oak forest. 



Already in the year 45 2 before Christ these woods furnished the material 

 for Roman castles, houses, and ships. 



