For the lower grades of foresters, schools were from time to time opened in addition to the private ones first mentioned. Such so-called “middle schools,” were founded at Eulenberg (1852), Weisswasser (1855) transferred to Reichstadt, and Lemberg (1874), at which latter the course is two years in the Polish language, and one at Bruck (1900), where the course is three years. At present, there are five middle schools in operation.
For the education of guards, three Forstwart schools were instituted in 1881 and 1883, one each for Tirol, Styria and Galicia, where, in an eleven months’ course, 15 forest guards at each receive instruction. In addition there are five schools of silviculture where the course is one year. Besides these schools, courses in forestry of shorter duration are given at three other institutions.
Besides these schools, the promotion of forestry science is, as in Germany, secured by forest experiment stations, which came into existence as a result of the earlier deliberations of the German foresters. The first proposition to establish such a station was submitted in 1868, but its establishment was delayed until 1875, when such a station was instituted at Vienna in connection with the school there. The results of the investigations are published from year to year and have enriched the forestry literature in the German language with many important contributions.
A very active association life exists in Austria, largely due to the influence of the many large private forest owners. Curiously enough, the first attempt at forming a society of foresters in Bohemia was suppressed by the authorities, probably for fear of revolutionary tendencies, and the effort simply resulted in a literary or reading association to obviate the need of private purchase of books. Not until 1848, the very year of the revolution, did the Bohemian forestry association become a fact, and, under the leadership of the large forest owners among the nobility, it has become the strongest in Austria, issuing a bi-monthly association journal from the beginning. Another strong local association which dates its beginning as a society for agriculture back to 1770, is the Moravian-Silesian Forestry Association, which segregated from the mother society in 1850, first as a section, and, having by 1858, attained a membership of 1,000, it constituted itself as a separate association in 1886. Besides these, many smaller ones exist in Austria. In 1852, a general Austrian forestry association was founded, which, in 1854, began the publication of a quarterly journal and held sessions in various parts of the empire; but, by and by, the interest seemed to flag, the attendance at the meetings became smaller and smaller, and finally the association was abandoned after a rival, the Austrian Forestry Congress, had been organized in 1874, which later became the Oesterreichische Reichs-Forstverein.
In Galicia and in Bukowina, the foresters meet as a section of the Society for Soil Culture. The same method of forming forestry sections of the agricultural societies is followed in other parts of the empire, and at least a dozen or more other local foresters’ associations might be mentioned, in which owners of forest properties are as fully represented as professional foresters; and their activity is not only to be found in literary labors, but also in practical work. In addition to the meetings of these local societies, representative congresses have met annually at Vienna since 1876, and have become powerful agents for improving legislation and practice.
Although, as was natural, owing to the difference in conditions the forestry literature in Austria began much later than that of Germany, a very active progress is noticeable since the middle of the last century, and the Austrians are vying successfully with the Germans in this direction. The names of Fioceli, Pokorny, Böhm, Wiesner, Molish, Willkomm, Hempel and Kerner in the direction of forest botany, Wessely, von Lorenz-Liburnau, Feistmantel, Dimitz, Wachtl (Entomology), Dombrowski (encyclopedia 1886), Exner, Janka (wood technology), Guttenberg (forest mensuration and regulation), von Seckendorff, Schiffel (forest mensuration), Cieslar, Reuss, Böhmerle, Hufnagl, Marchet, and many others are familiar to all German readers. In addition a very considerable literature in the Bohemian language is in existence, some in the Italian by Austrian authors, and some in the Slavonian.
The magazine literature began with publications by various forestry associations which became active after 1848. At the present time weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, yearly and irregular publications to the number of not less than 14 in German, in addition to several in Bohemian, may be counted, among which the monthly Centralblatt für das Gesammte Forstwesen, in existence since 1875, and the weekly Oesterreichische Forstzeitung, since 1883, are perhaps the most widely known.