480 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Service to the convenient observation of the student. The administration of 

 the n.'itional forests is a matter of importance to every student of forestry 

 in this country, and especially inasmuch as the greater number of students 

 ultimately find their employment in the Forest Service. On the national 

 Forests may be seen extensive timber-sales managed on silvicultural principles, 

 nursery work and field planting, improvements, the operations of forces 

 engaged in forest protection, in the elimination of agricultural lands, etc. 

 In addition to these are the enormous logging and milling plants of private 

 interests. 



The environment of the University of Montana offers i-are facilities to 

 the student whose work is to be with the Forest Service. Western life and 

 conditions are essentially different from those of other parts of the country. 

 The West is vast and much of it sparsely settled. The state of Montana 

 itself extends 650 miles from east to west, and 275 or more from north to 

 south. There are large tracts of wilderness into which not even a trail pene- 

 trates. Far removed from the settlements the forester must often find his 

 work, and the man inexperienced in woodcraft is not likely to prove efficient 

 in the discharge of his duties under such circumstances. There is frequently 

 a vast difference between the theoretically desirable and the practical, between 

 ideally correct silvicultural treatment and the character of treatment necessi- 

 tated by local conditions, and which will be necessitated for many years to 

 come in western forestry. Moreover one needs to understand the people, the 

 settlers, whose interests are bound up more or less intimately with the admin- 

 istration of the forest reserves. Taking all these things into consideration, the 

 matter of experience under western conditions is by no means a negligible 

 quantity. It is rather a necessary asset in the equipment of the western 

 forester. 



It is now two years since instruction in forestry was begun in the Univer- 

 sity of Montana. Two general courses are now offered. A four years' under- 

 graduate course is given in the fundamentals of an education in forestry. At 

 the outset facilities are such that it is deemed impracticable to give a full 

 technical course. The work as planned designs to prepare the student to such 

 an extent that he may be able to finish at one of the larger eastern schools 

 with a year of study of some of the more strictly technical branches. The 

 scope of the work will be broadened, doubtless, in the near future. As at 

 present outlined the four years' course gives a thorough grounding in the 

 subects of mathematics and engineering, physics, geology, mineralogy, chem- 

 istry, botany, and zoology. It includes the study of modern languages, history 

 and political economy. Instruction is also given in dendrology, silviculture, 

 wood technology, and forest pathology. 



An important feature of instruction in forestry at the University of 

 Montana is the winter school for rangers in the Forest Service. In 1910 the 

 course was first organized, instruction beginning in January with an enroll- 

 ment of 50 men. These men were detailed to take the course and came from 

 various parts of District 1 from Michigan to Washington. Owing to the 

 ruling from Washington, D. C, relative to the status of rangers while in 

 attendance at institutions of learning, many of the men were obliged to 

 discontinue and return to their homes. A reasonable number, however, 

 finished the course at their own exjjense. In 1011 the three months' cour.se 

 was again offered, with the result that .'5(1 students registered (about double the 

 number completing the course the first year), and most of these at a sacrifice 

 of salary in addition to considerable incidental expense. 



Thus the results justified the establishment of the ranger school and its 

 usefulness is made evident. As at first organized the course included the 



