ment because it makes the least demand upon them. Situated near railways, the Universities have the best facilities for forestral excursions and for fullest demonstrations in the field. As a matter of fact, the special schools do not turn out more practical men, and are not supplied with better districts for excursions, while on the other hand, in the Allgemeine Hochschulen, the instruction in the accessory sciences can be more complete and extended, and be given at no additional expense to the State. After a long and spirited discussion by prominent professors from both classes of Forest Schools, the President, Dr. Nordlinger, desired those who were in favor of combining instruction in forestry with other departments in the university or Allgemeine Hochschulen to rise, when seemingly the whole assembly rose, which was followed by vehement applause. When those who favored the separate system were invited to rise, only sixteen members stood up. It will thus be seen that the result of the fullest and latest experience of Europe is in favor of organizing a forest department in connection with some existing collegiate institution. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. No feature of the Educational Systems of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, France and other European countries is more striking to an American observer, than the large number of Industrial Schools, specially designed to train apprentices and make skilled workmen and competent foremen. These schools are very numerous, and as various as the kinds of industry pursued in each country or province. There has been the greatest progress in manufactures in those countries where these schools have been maintained longest and most liberally. Geneva has for many years maintained a Horological School, and the Swiss watches have long been celebrated throughout the world. Last summer I visited the new Horological Institute then building in Geneva, a magnificent edifice to cost over $200,000, and also witnessed the work of the school then in its old quarters. The course of study and practice covers three years. There were seven instructors, who are experts both in the theory and practice. No one can graduate till he has proved his skill, again and again, by making an entire watch of standard excellence. The patient training of these classes, or rather of each individual member, in the minutest particulars, both in theory and practice, and the criticism of defects in the work done, illustrate the attention given to details in all Industrial Schools. The same attention to minute details is seen in the Industrial · School at Lyons, France, to which the preeminence of that city in the manufacture of silk is largely due. It has twelve professors, and the course of study occupies three years. Here, as in all Industrial Schools, a prominent study is drawing, drawing ornaments, tinted drawings, and sketching plans of machines from memory. Thorough instruction is given in every detail relating to the manufacture of textile fabrics, especially of silks, the natural history of silk, treatment of the silk worm and cocoons, spinning, throwing, weaving and testing of silks; sorting and cleaning; winding, warping and beaming; changing of looms for weaving different styles; defects in operations and their remedies; decomposition of tissues; chemistry, especially as applied to dyeing and printing; physics with its applications to heating, steam-boilers, drying and ventilation; mechanics, embracing prime motors, materials and construction; hygiene, including physiology, noxious and useful animals, dangerous and unhealthy occupations, contagious diseases and how to avoid taking them; rural economy and "industrial plants." Manual exercises are conducted in the workshops in making, mending, putting up and shipping looms, in turning, filing, forging, fitting and various joiner's and machinist work. Frequent visits are made to the various factories in Lyons, under the lead of an instructor, where every part and process is fully explained. The students afterwards draw from memory plans of patterns and of machines. About one hundred pupils on an average are in attendance. The regular charge for tuition, use of laboratories and workshops, is $140 a year. Indigent students are aided by the Chamber of Commerce and Municipal Council of Lyons, so that a portion only pay the full tuition. That this school, conducted without aid from the government of France, should be so liberally supported by the citizens of Lyons, and continue to flourish for so long a period, is ample evidence of its great usefulness in the opinion of the most competent judges. More than sixty years ago France started special schools in the arts of designing, engraving and dyeing; in silk and ribbon weaving and lace making; in carving, stone-cutting and diamond-cutting (hence the diamond-cutting for the world is still carried on mainly in Paris); in porcelain and various ceramic productions, and the preeminence thus gained is still retained. The artistic manufactures of France command the markets of the world. The Industrial Schools more recently organized in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Italy and England, which in the aggregate are numbered by thousands, make these nations formidable competitors in artistic work. When invited by the Minister of Public Instruction of France to visit the National Porcelain Factory at Sèvres, I expressed to him surprise that such an establishment should come under the supervision of the Educational Department, to which he replied, "It is because it is the duty of this department to supervise and control the Preparatory School for Sèvres, which you should first visit." On inspecting this School of Design in Paris, I found in the lower rooms the methods and work of a first-class drawing school. But in the upper rooms the classes were painting on elegant goblets, cups, plates, vases and other choicer wares, just brought from Sèvres and to be returned there for baking. After witnessing this truly artistic work, I no longer wondered that in the Sèvres factory itself the artisan had indeed become the artist, and that only men of princely wealth could procure the products of this unrivalled establishment. In Belgium the girls have shared the advantages of Industrial Schools as well as the boys. The schools for training in lace-making and embroidering, in Brussels, have long been cele-, brated, and kindred schools have more recently been opened in Rowlers, Ghent, Ath, Deerlyk and in many other places in that busy little kingdom. To those familiar with this fact, it was no surprise that Belgian lace shown at the Philadelphia Exposition was unrivalled. Some Industrial Schools are maintained wholly by the central government, others partially, and still others are supported by endowments, and many are private institutions dependent mostly on tuition for support. A large number called apprentice schools are maintained by benevolent associations. These are designed to train boys and girls both in skilled manipulations in various trades, and in the practical studies and theories most helpful in such pursuits. Belgium, with about fifty industrial schools, and fifteen thousand apprentices graduated from them, Germany with over fifty-two thousand apprentices in fourteen hundred and fifty industrial schools, and France with twelve thousand industrial scholars, show the practical appreciation of these institutions in these countries, which distance the competition of surrounding nations in the great markets of the world. Steam and the telegraph are bringing all nations into such near neighborhood that industrial ascendancy will belong to that country which provides the best industrial education. The Artisan School established nine years ago in Rotterdam, Holland, has already two hundred pupils and commands the confidence of that community. Candidates for admission must pass an examination in the simpler rudiments, and are expected to remain in the school three years. The institution is both a school and a shop, and the time of the pupils is daily divided between the two. Drawing, Physics and Elementary Mechanics are prominent among the practical studies of the school room, In the shops a great variety of trades are taught, such as stonecutting, including keystones, steps, thresholds, flooring tiles and placing plinths; masonry, including plain walls, foundations, chimneys, niches, sewers, arches, &c.; smithery, or making cramps, hooks, hinges, nuts, locks, girders, &c. The braziers are taught forging, turning, stretching and soldering, and make water-cans, dust-pans, kettles, basins, springs and various kitchen utensils. The instrument-makers learn to cut screws and worms, forge steel and copper and cast copper objects. The carpenters make chests, desks, trestles, windows, doors and the like. The painters learn to make putty, grind paint, polish wood, set glass, paint letters and to grain in imitation of marble or the choicer woods. In the Philadelphia Exposition the admirable exhibit of the various articles made by these boys proved alike their skill and the practical value of this institution. In view of the great variety of the work and the need of individual instruction, twenty-one masters are employed in this school. Great prominence is given to drawing, as lying at the foundation of skilled industry. The Director is the teacher of construction and projective drawing. There are four other teachers of drawing-rectilinear, architectural, ornamental and model drawing, and one or more in each of the other departments above named. The boys draw simple constructions from wood, iron or brick work, such as window joints, doors, jambs, ravelins, stair-cases, roof-constructions, brace-works, springs, locks, cornices, architraves, &c. The school studies occupy each morning and the practical instruction in the workshops the afternoon. As soon as the boys are made familiar with the tools, they are entrusted with practical and marketable work, not sham or play-work, but the making of saleable articles for the trade, so that they at once feel that they are engaged in real business. This plan excites the ambition of the boys and adds interest and dignity to their work. The workshops are of the most approved kind and are supplied with the best tools and appliances. In the carpenter's shop, there are benches |