48 



calture and aristocracy, each of these is of secondary impor- 

 tance in the traini ng in forest technology. The professors of the 

 accessory sciences are out of sympathy with the forest, and 

 busy themselves with problems irrespective of their relation to 

 forest science. If it be said that the Universities have pro- 

 duced more eminent writers and thinkers than the forest 

 academy, the remedy should be found in the abademy and in 

 the enlargement of its course of study, with opportunity for the 

 stadent to resort to the forest every day, proposing and solving 

 his questions on vegetable physiology and zoology. 



The speaker appointed to open the discussion on the other 

 side, Dr. von Seckendorff from Yienna, attributed the origin of 

 isolated schools of forestry to the former state of forests, and 

 the limited education required for forest service in a by -gone 

 day. But now a more scientific method of research in forest 

 matters has been introduced, and a higher testing examination 

 is demanded of students in forest science. A liberal education 

 is essential here as well as in the other professions. The advo- 

 cates of separate forest schools claim two points of especial 

 superiority ; first, that their students are better trained in prac- 

 tical forestry, and second, that in these only are the studies 

 conducted with due reference to the requirements of the forester. 

 They assume that in the vicinity of the Allgemeine Hoch- 

 schulen there are no forests suitable for the instruction of stu- 

 dents, and that a purely theoretical education only must here 

 prevail. These assumptions are unfounded. 



The number of University and Hochsclmle towns in Germany, 

 richly surrounded by woods is very great. In a line drawn 

 from the coast of the German Ocean to the place of this meet- 

 ing alone, there are Hanover, Gottingen, Marburg, Giessen, 

 Heidelberg, Carlsruhe and Freiburg, all so surrounded. It is 

 not the extent of a forest which decides its suitability as a 

 means of instruction, so much as its variety of trees and modes 

 of treatment and exploitation. 



The second assumption will not Dear examination. Science 

 and practical work are not antagonistic to each other. In the 

 Universities instruction does not go beyond what is desirable 

 for every educated man. And there ought to be no ground for 

 the suspicion that any students of forestry choose that depart- 



