C—3a

141. Under the Ministry of Agriculture, the Board of Crown Lands and Forests manages some 10,000,000 acres of productive State forests, and, in addition to other subsidiary functions, supervises six lower forestry schools comparable to those in Norway. A separate Department, the Board of Private Forestry, acts in a legal and advisory capacity in the interests of private forestry (75 per cent, of total forest area). 142. Independent of these two State Departments, and directly responsible to the Ministry of Agriculture, is the Board of Forestry Education and Research, which administers — (a) The Royal College of Forestry. (b) The Forest Research Institute. The Royal College of Forestry 143. The professional training of Swedish foresters began in 1828, when the Royal College of Forestry was established. It is located in the outskirts of Stockholm in a wooded environment on high ground overlooking the lake-like inlet of Brunns. The College consists of a main three-story building, erected in 1915, and a new students' hostel capable of accommodating thirty-two of the usual total of seventy-five students, the majority of whom consequently have to board in Stockholm. Except for hostel board, students are not required to contribute anything to the cost of their forestry education. Entry Qualifications and Sequence of Training 144. A youth who seeks to qualify for higher forestry education in Sweden must normally proceed as follows : (1) Secondary education to the standard of a recognized certificate in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Foreign Language (German or English), and Hygiene is first completed at either a technical high school or special agricultural school at the age of nineteen or twenty years. The standard of basic science which can be thus reached within the Swedish educational system is deemed to be sufficiently high to justify the exclusion of these subjects from the syllabus of the Royal College forestry course, except in special or applied forms. (2) The aspirant is then required to gain twelve months' forest working experience, which must include a two months' course in charcoal burning at a Forest Service School, and five months under the direct supervision of a professional forester. This period of apprenticeship is normally preceded by two years' military service. (3) Application for admission to higher forestry training must then be supported by an education certificate, report on supervised forest work and performance at the charcoal school, and certificates of health and age : applicants must not exceed twenty-six years of age. (4) The twenty-five applicants who are successful in the qualifying examination then proceed to a twelve months' preliminary course at Garpenberg, a Forest School in central Sweden administered by the Board of Education and Research. (5) In the following year, students proceed to the Royal College of Forestry at Stockholm for three years of advanced forestry training. The Garpenberg Course 145. An integral part of Swedish higher forestry education, Garpenberg provides intensive training in forestry practice and elementary theory under forest conditions, as a preliminary to the advanced course at Stockholm.

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