The course of education for the foresters until the middle of the 18th
century was a simple one and mainly directed to learning the
manipulations of the chase, training of dogs, tending of horses, setting
of nets, shooting, etc. Two or three years’ life with a practical hunter
were followed by journeying and working for different employers,
woodlore being picked up by the way from those that knew.
When in the 18th century the need for better woods knowledge became
pressing, the few really good forest managers were sought out by the
young men who wished to secure this knowledge. In this way, a number of
so-called “master-schools” came into existence, each depending on one
man. Such a school was that of v. Zanthier in Wernigerode, later
transferred to Ilsenburg, started in 1763 and ending with his death in
1778. Theoretical teaching and opportunity for practical demonstration
here was such that even students from the Berlin school and men in
actual employment attended the courses.
The two great masters and fathers of modern forestry, Hartig and Cotta,
each instituted such master-schools, the former in 1789, and the latter
in 1785. Cotta’s school was afterwards transferred to Tharandt and
became a State institution.
The interest of the State in forestry education found first expression
in Prussia in a course of lectures in botany, later also in forest
economy, given to the forest officials by _Gleditsch_, professor of
botany at the University of Berlin (1770), to which was added a
practicum at Tegel under Burgsdorf, who finally became the head of this
mixed State school, and continued in this position until at his death,
in 1802, the school was discontinued.
In imitation of this move by Prussia, a military planting school was
instituted by Württemberg at Solitude in 1770. The most noteworthy
feature of this school, which under various changes lasted less than 25
years, was the course of lectures by Stahl, mentioned before.
Besides this higher school, a lower grade school was started in 1783,
but its career was even briefer, not more than ten years.
Bavaria organized a forest school at Munich in 1790 with a four years’
course, and at least three years’ study at this school was required of
those seeking employment in the State service; but without having ever
flourished, this school, too, collapsed by 1803.