Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/336

322 language of the royal ordinance for its management, "has for its end to educate able forest managers by free instruction"; subordinate to this, a system of district forest schools, of which the same ordinance says, "The aim of these forest schools is, through gratis instruction, to form good foresters"; and, finally, the common schools, together with private elementary schools of forestry, aided to some extent by the Government.

The Forest Institute at Stockholm ranks with the best forest schools of Europe. Its course of instruction and its management are so nearly like those in use at Nancy, at Neustadt-Eberswalde, and elsewhere, that we need not speak of them in detail.

The district forest schools are established at suitable points in the public forests. They are under the oversight of the Forest Bureau, and each under the visitation of the forest inspector in whose district of service the school is situated. Each forest school is presided over by a president, who is at the same time the teacher of the school, with a forest overseer as his assistant. The course of instruction embraces one full year, at the end of which the pupils have a public examination. In 1874 there were seven schools of this kind. There were alsealso [sic] thirteen private elementary schools of forestry, supported in part by government aid. It is also a noticeable feature of the system of education in Sweden that horticulture and tree-planting are taught in the FalkFolk [sic] schools, or common schools. From the report of 1873 we find that in that year 59,860 pupils received such instruction. The same ratio would give 600,000 pupils for the United States.

Spain and Portugal, ranking lowest almost of all European countries in the proportion of their forest area to their total surface, the one having, on the authority of Reutzsch, 5·52, and the other 4·40 per cent., are yet not without their forest schools. A School of Forest Engineers was established in 1846, at Villaviciosa, not far from Madrid. In 1869 it was transferred to San Lorenzo del Escurial. It is under the direction of the Minister of Agriculture. Is has a director, nine professors, and two assistants. The course of instruction extends to three years.

An Agricultural Institute was founded at Lisbon in 1852. It was reorganized in 1865 as the General Institute of Agriculture. The course of instruction embraces rural engineering, sylviculture, agronomy, forest engineering, and veterinary medicine. The corps of instruction consists of ten professors and five substitutes, as they are called. The institute is well furnished with grounds, cabinets, and collections adapted to give practical instruction in the studies taught.

Denmark and Finland also have their schools of forestry, the one at Copenhagen, under the title of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural High School, and the other at Evois.

Russia has several schools scattered throughout her vast territory.