FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 89 



FOREST PLANTING, CULTURE, ETC. 



The first part of your question will not admit of any details just here, 

 whatever I may be able to do later. Volumes have been written, for the, 

 most part filled with local words and technical terms, making the work of 

 translating very difficult. Years of study in technical schools and years of 

 practice in the woods afterward are necessary to fit a man for the position of 

 forester, and not every forester, as I found in my interviews with several of 

 them, would be able to write anything like a decent book or article on forest 

 culture. Permit me here to give the names of some of the best works, with 

 the assurance that I shall do what I can later to answer that part of your 

 question more in detail: "Sowing and Planting," Burchard; "Wood 

 Culture," Gweinaer; "The Science of Forestry," Fischbach. 



The culture of the forest is done either by means of seeds or plants. The 

 methods of conducting the sowing and planting are manifold. The above- 

 named works contain elaborate and detailed instructions for each and every 

 kind of seed and plant. 



FOREST SCHOOLS. 



The state gives no bounties for helping on the culture other than the 

 generous support it gives to schools and the encouragement given by its sys- 

 tematic and effective protection. In each of the separate states of the German 

 Empire one finds forest academies existing, eifher independent or attached to 

 some university. In Baden the forestry academy is joined to the technical 

 high school at Karlsruhe, the capital city of Baden. Any person seeking a 

 position as forester or forest official will have to submit proofs of his having 

 made preparatory and special study for the position. The preparatory study 

 will be the general preparatory course through the public schools and in a 

 course, theoretical, namely through the branches of mathamatics, science, and 

 especially natural science, an acquaintance with which is necessary. 



The special course must consist, in the theoretical, of the exact knowledge 

 of all branches of the science of forestry ; in the practical application of the 

 principles of the science of forestry, wood cultivation, and service in the 

 administration of the forest department. The general preparation may be 

 more clearly defined as follows : If a man has studied the various branches 

 taught in a high school or has passed through a first-class real gymnasium, 

 corresponding to a good scientific course in an average American college, he 

 may be said to be well prepared to enter upon his special course. The spe- 

 cial course embraces universal or general arithmetic, algebra, geometry, prac- 

 tical geometry, with plain drawing, plain and spherical trigonometry and 

 polygonometry, elementary mechanics, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geology, 

 physics, chemistry, agricultural chemistry, a knowledge of soils and climatol- 

 ogy. It will thus be seen that a very thorough preparation is required before 

 a man is allowed to experiment on such valuable material as the woods and 

 forests. Add to the above the theoretical study of forest statics, forest sta- 

 tistics, knowledge of how to administer the forests, history of forests, and 



