_Germany_ is in general well-wooded. The winters being long and severe, an abundant supply of fuel is almost as essential as a sufficient supply of food. This necessity has led, along with a passion for the chase, to the preservation of forests, and to the establishment of an admirable system of forest cultivation, almost as carefully conducted as field tillage. The Black Forest stretches the whole length of the grand-duchy of Baden and part of the kingdom of Wurttemberg, from the Neckar to Basel and the Lake of Constance. The vegetation resembles that of the Vosges; forests of spruce, silver fir, Scotch pine, and, mingled with birches, beech and oak, are the chief woods met with. Until comparatively recent times large quantities of timber derived from these forests were floated down the Rhine to Holland and also shipped to England. Now the greater part of it is used locally for construction, or it is converted into paper pulp. In the grand-duchy of Hesse the Odenwald range of mountains, stretching between the Main and the Neckar, contains the chief supply of timber. In the province of Nassau there are the large wooded tracts of the Taunus mountain range and the Westerwald. In Rhenish Prussia valuable forests lie partly in the Eifel, on the borders of Belgium, and on the mountains overhanging the Upper Moselle, but they do not furnish such stately trees as the Black Forest and the Odenwald. The Spessart, near Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, is one of the most extensive forests of middle Germany, containing large masses of fine oak and beech, with plantations of coniferous trees, such as spruce, Scotch pine and silver fir. Bavaria possesses other fine forest tracts, such as the Baierischewald on the Bohemian frontier, the Kranzberg near Munich, and the Frankenwald in the north of the kingdom. North Germany has extensive forests on the Harz and Thuringian Mountains, while in East Prussia large tracts of flat ground are covered with Scotch pine, spruce, oak and beech. Every German state has its forest organization. In Prussia the department is presided over by the Oberland Forstmeister at Berlin, while each province, or part of a province, has an Oberforstmeister, under whom a number of Oberforsters administrate the state and communal forests. These, again, are assisted by a lower class of officials called Forsters. The Oberforsters throughout Germany are educated at special schools of forestry, of which in 1909 the following nine existed: In Prussia: at Eberswalde and Munden. In Bavaria: at Munich and Aschaffenburg. In Saxony: at Tharand. In Wurttemberg: at Tubingen. In Baden: at Carlsruhe. In Hesse: at Giessen. In the grand-duchy of Saxony: at Eisenach.