In regard to education a most liberal policy prevails.
At the Institute the tuition is free and in addition 4 students receive scholarships of 250 dollars per year; appointment to assistantships follows immediately after promotion, and in 10 years the position of jägmästare may be attained. The number of students is limited to 30. The director of this school is also general adviser in forestry matters. Besides the director, six professors are employed. The course at this school is two years of 11 full months.
There are now a higher and a lower course, the former requiring previous graduation from another preparatory forest school, either the one at Omberg (founded 1886), or that at Kloten (1900), where a one-year course, mainly in practical work, is given.
For the lower service there are not less than 6 schools in various parts of the country, each with one teacher and assistants, managed under a chief of range. In these, not only is tuition free but 10 pupils receive also board and lodging; the course lasting 8 months. These schools prepare for State service, as well as for managers of private forests.
A forest experiment station was organized in 1903, an independent institution in the Domain Bureau, under the direct charge of a practitioner. Every third year, a commission is to determine what work is to be undertaken. The appropriation, which so far is hardly $5,000 per annum, will not permit much expansion. The first number of its publication, Meddelanden fran Statens Skogsförsöksanstalt, was issued in 1904, and work of a superior character has been accomplished since then.
That a forestry public exists in Sweden is attested by a forest association with an organ Skogsvards Föreningens Tidskrift, which was founded in 1902. This journal is really the continuation of an earlier magazine, Tidskrift for Skogshushallning, a quarterly, begun in 1869 and running until 1903. A forestry association for Norrland alone which also issues a yearbook, was organized a few years ago. A periodical for rangers, etc., is also in existence under the name of Skogsvännen.
In 1902 also, there was formed a lumberman’s trust to regulate the output, which the forest owners proposed to meet by an associated effort to raise stumpage charges. The attempt of the lumbermen to restrict the cut in 1902 was, however, a failure, for the export of that year was 10% larger than the previous year.
It is expected that the new law will have the tendency of decreasing the cut and of inaugurating a new era in forestry matters generally.