Education. 395 



The first forest school was organized by Balestrieri, 

 who had studied ia Germany, at the Agricidtnral 

 School near Turui about 1848, transferred to the Tech- 

 nical Institute in Turin in 1851. This school continued 

 until 1869, and from 1863 had been recognized by the 

 State, assuring its graduates employment in State ser- 

 vice. In 1869 the State established a forest school of 

 its own {Institute Forestale) at Vallambrosa near Flor- 

 ence, with a three years' course (since 1886 four years) 

 and, in 1900, eleven professors and 40 students. In 

 spite of the State subvention of $8,500, it appears that 

 some peculiar economies are necessary, for owing to the 

 absence of stoves the school is closed from Nov. 1 to 

 March 1. 



Besides the technical school at Vallambrosa, agricul- 

 tural schools have chairs of forestry or arboriculture, as 

 for instance the Eoyal school at Portici. As an educa- 

 tional feature, the introduction of Arbor Day, in 1900, 

 should also be mentioned. 



The existence of a forest school naturally produces 

 a literature. While a considerable number of popular 

 booklets attempt the education of the people, who are 

 the owners of the forest, there is no absence of profes- 

 sional works. Among these should be mentioned Di 

 Berenger's Belvicoltura, a very complete work, which 

 also contains a brief history of forestry in the Orient, 

 Greece and Italy. G. Carlos Siemoni's Manuele d'arte 

 forestale (1864), and the earlier Scienza selvana by 

 Tondi (1839) are encyclopedias of inferior quality. 



In 1859 E. MafEei, a private forester, began to pub- 

 lish the Bevista forestale del regno d'ltalia, an annual 

 review, for the purpose of popularizing forestry in Italy, 



