value to the prairie states. According to this act as it now stands, a man may acquire the absolute title to a quarter-section, or 160 acres of land, by planting and cultivating ten acres of timber, there being not less than 2,700 trees to the acre. The patent is not issued until eight years after the claim is entered. The mode of preparation of the land is prescribed, and proof of successful planting must be shown.

According to the latest Reports, 5,157,681 acres had been entered under this act within three years, chiefly in Kansas, Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota. Undoubtedly some of these lands have been taken up for speculative purposes, and as little labor as possible will be spent upon them in the way of planting and improvement, while in many other instances, the undertaking is assumed in good faith, and with a desire to realize as much profit as possible from the cultivation.

Passing from these statements relating to American Forestry, let us notice some facts of interest bearing upon the subject in Europe. As is well known, every government of continental Europe has now in operation a system of forest management, the best of which provides (so far as concerns the forests owned by general and local governments, and by institutions) for a perpetual supply, to the full limit of their capacity for timber-growth.

From this grade of excellence, requiring a special education and thorough training of agents for its maintenance, fully equal to that for any branch of the public service, we have various degrees of efficiency down to that of a mere police regulation for the prevention of fires, and the restraint of waste upon timber on the public domain. Yet these systems, however they may differ in details, agree in this- that unless the public interest is concerned, the owners of private estates are generally allowed to cut or plant upon their own premises, as their interest decides. The exceptions to this rule are,—along a frontier, where woodlands are needed for the public defence, the banks of a river liable to inundation— where materials should be at hand for the construction of barriers, -upon mountains liable to erosion of torrents, or on drifting sands on the seashore. There may be a few other exceptions, but as a general rule, the government does not often interfere with the timber upon private estates, even where it requires a notice of intention to be given before clearing is begun.

Yet upon these private lands, large forests are sometimes grown

for profit, and their management is often placed in the care of agents who have received the highest grade of special education for this particular service. Except in Great Britain, we believe that facilities have been provided for this special instruction in every country in Europe, either in academies where Forestry is taught alone, or in institutions where agriculture and other practical industries receive a share of attention.

It may be proper to notice here a change that has been taking place in recent years, in the organization of these Schools of Forestry in Europe. In Austria, a first class School of Forestry at Mariabruun was, after more than forty years' existence, merged in 1875 in a High School of Agriculture and Forestry in Vienna. In Bavaria, the Central Forest Academy at Aschaffenburg, still older than the one above mentioned, has been more recently united with the University of Munich, and discussions tending to further changes with the view of consolidation are now in progress in other forest academies. In Prussia, the two institutions at Eberswalde and at Münden still maintain a separate existence, and the former has recently commemorated the fiftieth year of its history.

In looking at the organization of these institutions, we notice a marked change in their plan, particularly in Germany. In the preparatory studies, and especially in the natural sciences and in physics, so far as they in the least concern the forester, we find a more careful division of labor, and a more earnest purpose to make these sciences to their whole extent available in their profession, instead of the elementary studies in chemistry and botany which formerly satisfied the requirements for graduation.

In all of these institutions, excursions and practical exercises form a regular feature in the course of education, and microscopic studies now receive much more attention than formerly.

The science at present receives a substantial support from various experimental stations in Germany, Austria, France and other countries, in which both practical and scientific questions are carefully investigated, and the results published. Among these we may prominently mention the Foresters' Experimental Union in Germany, and the experimental labors of the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, under the direction of Baron von Seckendorff.

In recent years much interest has been manifested among in

vestigators in Europe, in determining by instrumental observations, made at comparative stations in the open fields and in the forests, the influence of the latter upon the atmosphere in their vicinity, and upon the climate of the country generally.

That forests tend to render the climate of a country colder and more humid, has been known from general observation for many centuries; and the climate of Gaul, as described by Julius Cæsar, compared with that of France at the present day, has been often cited as an instance of this fact. Yet it is only within a very recent period that anything like a full and systematic comparison has been attempted by instrumental observations.7

In selecting the location of these stations, one set of instruments is placed in the open fields, and the other in the woods, the former being as much as possible free from the influence of the forest, and the latter fully under its protection. Care is taken that the soil, altitude and other circumstances, except the forest-shade, are alike.

Their outfit generally consists of open-air thermometers psychrometers-rain and snow gauges, barometers, wind-vanes, and instruments for observing the evaporation from surfaces variously covered as compared with a free water surface-the percolation of water through various soils, ozone records, and observations upon the periodical phenomena of animal and vege table life generally, so far as influenced by the seasons. In some cases the temperature of the interior of trees is recorded, and in some of the later systems of observation, it has been proposed to ascertain the temperature and humidity not only at the level of the tree-tops, but at a considerable height above them, the latter being obtained by the aid of masts, and by captive balloons that admit of the elevation of instruments.

Without going into details of the results of these observations, we may here remark, that records more or less complete in their plan have been established as follows::

In Saxony, since 1862-3, under the direction of Professor Krutzsch, of Tharand, at nine stations, embracing records of temperature, humidity, rain, snow, etc.

In Bavaria, since 1868, seven stations have been established

An account of investigations in this line down to 1872 was published in that year by the Baron von Löffelholtz-Colberg, under the title of " Die Bedeutung und Wichtig. keit des Waldes."

under Dr. Ernst Ebermayer, who in 1873 published very fully the results of four years' records, and in 1876 another work upon the formation of soil from the litter of woodlands, and the chemical statics of forest culture.9 It was his intention at the end of ten years to publish the results of that period in more extended form, but his recent removal from Aschaffenburg to Munich has apparently postponed, if it has not disappointed, this expectation.

In Prussia, a system of observations, nearly similar to those in Bavaria, was begun in 1874 under Professor A. Müttrich, of Eberswalde, and now includes fourteen stations in Prussia, Brunswick and Alsace-Lorraine. The results are published monthly 10 and annually, and a careful study of so much as relates to the temperature of the soil has recently appeared.12

11

In France, observations upon the rainfall in the woods and open fields were made under the direction of Marshal Vaillant, in 1866, near Paris, and published in the Atlas Meteorologique of the Imperial Observatory of Paris for 1867. In the same year, observations of more extended character were commenced at two forest stations and one agricultural station in the vicinity of Nancy, near the eastern border of France, by Professor A. Mathieu of the school of Forestry at Nancy, and have since been continued. A summary of eleven years' observations was published in 1878.13

Upon a general suggestion of the Congress of Agriculturists and Foresters at Vienna, in 1873, M. Fautrat, a sub-inspector in the French Forest Service, with the approval and aid of the Department, established two stations for comparative observations, one in the deciduous forest of Halatte near Fleurines, and

Die physikalischen Einwirkungen des Waldes auf Luft und Boden, und seine klimatologische und hygienische Bedeutung, 1 Vol., 8vo, pp. 266 and 251 (with an atlas). Berlin, 1873.

Die gesammte Lehre den Waldstreu, mit Rücksicht auf die chemische Statik des Waldbaues, I Vol., 8vo, pp. 300 and 116. Berlin, 1876.

19 Beobachtungs Ergebnisse der im Königreich Preussen, im Herzogthum Braunschweig und in den Reichslanden eingericheteten forstlich-meteorologischen Stationen, 1 bis 5 Jahrgang, 1875-1879.

11Jahresbericht über die Beobachtungs-Ergebnisse der im Königreich Preussen und in den Reichslanden eingerichteten forstlich-meteorologischen Stationen. 1 bis 4 Jahrgang, 1875-1878.

12

Beobachtungen der Erdbodentemperatur auf den forstlich-meteorologischen Stationen, in Preussen, Braunschweig und Elsass-Lothringen. Von A. Müttrich. Sep. arat-Abdruck, aus der Festschrift zur 50 jahrigen Jubelfeier der Forstakademie, Eberswalde. 4to. pp. 33. Berlin, 1880.

13 Météorologie Comparée, Agricole et Forestière, 4to, Paris, pp. 70. Published by the Forest Administration, in connection with the Paris Exposition of 1878.

the other in a forest of the Pinus sylvestris, near the village of Thiers. The former began in February 1874, and was continued four years; the latter began in June 1875, and was continued three years. The results have been published by the French Forest Administration.14

In Switzerland, observations were established in 1868 at three stations, by the Forest Administration of the Canton of Bern, and the results have since been published monthly in detail.15 One of these stations is in a forest of beech, another of fir, and another of larch. The observations upon periodical phenomena, made at numerous stations in the Canton of Bern, under the same auspices, are published annually.16

In Austria, a plan of observations in Forest Meteorology has been prepared by Dr. Jos. R. Lorenz, and adopted as a part of the experimental system of researches under the general direction of Baron von Seckendorff, and under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture. The plan is very comprehensive and includes some features not found in other systems.

In Sweden, two scientific stations have been established by the government, one at Upland in the southeastern part, and the other at Skaarsborg. They have been in existence some three or four years, but we have not met with any publication of the results.

In Italy, similar observations are being made at one or two stations under the direction of Dr. di Beranger, Director of the School of Forestry at Vallombrosa.

In Bohemia, a system of meteorological observations has been recently established under the auspices of the Bohemian Forest Society; and mainly in the interests of Forestry, which is very comprehensive in its plan, embracing a wide range as to elevation and exposure. So far as published, these records relate to the rainfall only, the observations being made by employés of the Forest Administration of the country.

The number of stations at the beginning in January, 1879, was 570, and at the end of the first year, it had increased to 689. In February of the present year, the number was 712. The results

1a Observations Météorologiques. Faites de 1874, á 1878, par M. Fautrat. 4to, pp. 4 (with eight pages of plates).

15 Beobachtungs-Ergebnisse der im Kanton Bern zu forstlichen Zwecken errich eteten meteorologischen Stationen.

16 Klimatologische und Phänologische Beobachtungen (Observations climatologiques et Phénologiques) im Canton Bern, 4to.