306 • FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



either at the instance of the professors or of forest officers of tlie ordinary service who may 

 desire the investigation of questions which have arisen in the course of their work. There is 

 a collection of models of saw-mills, of torrent beds treated with weirs, and of sand dunes, &c., 

 as well as a fencing-hall and a botanical garden. It is estimated that the buildings are worth 

 about ;^i2,ooo and that the library and other collections are worth ;/]'io,OQo; total, ;^22,ooo. 



The students having passed out of the school at the end of their course of instruction, are 

 appointed to the forest department as Gardes generaux (sub-assistant inspectors), and are 

 employed on special duty for a time before being intrusted with the charge of a subdivision. 



Both Frenchmen and foreigners can obtain permission to follow the courses of the school 

 as "free students'' without the payment of any fees. Since the foundation of the school in 

 1824, 1334 regular students, candidates for the French forest service, have been received; and 

 complete or partial training has been afforded to 239 free students, of whom 30 were French- 

 men, 73 Englishmen, and the remainder were foreigners of other countries. 



The Englishmen are sent by the secretary of state for India, to be trained for the Indian 

 service, under a special arrangement made with the French government. Ordinarily the free 

 students merely attend the lectures, and, as a matter of course, are not examined ; but the 

 English students have to pass all the school examinations. 



THE SECONDARY AND PRIMARY SCHOOI^ AT BARRES. 



The secondary school was established in 1883, in order to train a class of men who should 

 occupy an intermediate position between the officers of the superior and those of the subordinate 

 staff. Of the students who entered in that year, seventeen passed out as head-guards, and one 

 of these has been promoted to the superior staff as a sub-assistant inspector. But the school 

 was reorganized in 1 884, and it is now maintained in order to facilitate the entrance of sub- 

 ordinates into the superior staff, by completing the education of such of them as may be deemed 

 otherwise fitted for advancement. Candidates for admission to the school are selected by the 

 conservators from among those of their head-guards and guards who are thought to possess the 

 needful qualifications and to be capable of passing the required educational tests ; ordinarily, 

 they must have completed four years' service in the forests and be under thirty-five years of 

 age, but passed students of the primary school can be admitted after two years' ser\'ice in the 

 forests. They are subjected to an entrance examination in the following subjects, viz. : Dicta- 

 tion, elementary geometry, French history, French geography, timber measurement, the selec- 

 tion and marking of trees to be felled or reserved, and the duties of forest subordinates generally. 



The director of the school is a conservator of forests, who receives the pay of his grade and 

 free quarters; he is aided, in the administration and teaching, by two assistant inspectors, each 

 of whom receives an allowance of ^^40 a year in addition to his pay. Teachers who are not 

 forest oflicers can be employed when their services are required. As is the case at Nancy, the 

 director and the professors form a council of instruction and discipline. The students all hold 

 the rank and wear the uniform of a head-guard. They are lodged at the school, and receive 

 an allowance of £2. a month to provide themselves with food and clothing. 



The instruction, which extends over two years, is both general and special or technical ; the 

 object being to improve the general education of the students, and also to give them such a 

 professional training, theoretical and practical, as may fit them for the position they are to 

 occupy. The course is arranged as follows, viz. : 



First year. — Sylviculture, th^ cutting up and export of wood, estimates of quantity and 

 value of timber, sales of forest produce, arithmetic and geometry, the elements of algebra and 

 trigonometry, surveying and map-drawing, levelling, forest law, the elements of forest botany 

 (including vegetable anatomy and physiology and the classification of the principal forest trees), 

 planting and sowing, and geography. 



Second jw?-.— Working plans, buildings and roads, the elements of mineralogy, geology, 

 and zoology, the treatment of torrents and dunes, forest law and administration, the elements 

 of inorganic chemistry, agriculture and agricultural chemistry, literature and the geography of 

 France. Most of the above subjects are taught not only in the class-room, but also practically 



