78 



sinecures, while others have six times too much to do, and it is the same with those in the 

 subordinate ranks. The forest academy is at Mariabrunn, near Vienna. There are about 

 thirty-five students. 



The collections are fine, possessing specimens of all instruments and appliances made 

 use of in felling, squaring, sawing, carting, and preparing timber, models of sawmills and 

 machinery of all descriptions, plans of river beds improved and embanked for floating, 

 sluices of all sorts, dams and piers for directing rafts in their course and catching fire- 

 wood, models of rafts, and specimens of home and foreign timber of all kinds. The dam- 

 age done by animals and insects is also exhibited here comprehensively. There is also a 

 forest garden attached to the academy for the instruction of the students. 



The stafi^ of the academy consists of the director, thirteen professors and assistant 

 professors, with subordinates in the account office, laboratory, etc. There is also a forest 

 school at Bruhl, for training young men (of whom eight were there) as practical foresters. 



The greater number of those trained here are intended for private and not for Gov- 

 ernment service, their expenses for board and lodging being paid by noblemen and large 

 proprietors, from whose estates they come, and to whom they return as forest oflScers and 

 workmen. The state maintains the schools, and pays the professors' salaries, and there 

 are no extra fees. This cannot fail to assist the intelligent management of the private 

 forests of the empire, which are very extensive. The absence of numerous candidates for 

 the government forest service, and preference for private employment is noteworthy, when 

 compared with the opposite state of things in Prussia. The irregular promotion, lack of 

 system, and low salaries in the Austrian forest service are the explanation. 



The Austrian crown forests have been neglected ; they are patchy with a low and 

 decreasing yield per acre. There has been till now no attempt at rotation of blocks. • 

 working in periods. As is found in India, a glance at the outskirts of the forests ^ i 

 lead one to suppose it fairly stocked with timber, but a more careful iilspection ,i ■ . .-s 

 that this is not the case, and that only in the valleys and more remote portions, ^\' ..-le the 

 soil is particularly good and the axe has not been so frequent in its inroads, is i here a fair 

 and regular crop. 



Herr Schuppitch, the present director, is trying hard to change matters, and is- 

 changing the hardwood crop, which has exhausted the soil for that class, with pine growths, 

 which besides grow quicker and pay better. He is also dividing into blocks and periods, 

 and planting up many bare or ill-covered tracts, where natural reproduction is impossible 

 owing to the absence of standard trees. 



Grand Duchy of Baden. 



We shall now notice a private forest, that of the Prince of Furstenburgh, in the Black 

 Forest. The receipts and expenditure are not obtainable, as are the public ones, but we 

 are informed that the forests are economically worked, and that ths liberal sums expended 

 on road-making, fitting rivers for floating, housing foresters, &c., were well repaid by the 

 facilities secured, and contentment and zeal of the employees. In the case of this, as of 

 other private forests, it is evident that a private individual is not burdened with consi- 

 derations of policy and public good as in a "State. The forests are, therefore, worked 

 with the best profit compatible with their retention as capital. 



