TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



89 



own interests whatever came into his posses- 

 sion by right and sometimes whatever he 

 could secure, whether legal or illegal. Men 

 have taken possession of our mines and our 

 forests by settlement or purchase and have 

 felt free to remove or destroy them for their 

 own personal benefit. It may be possible to 

 restrain the men of this generation by active 

 and positive legislation; it may be possible 

 to awaken the legislatures of the states and 

 of Congress to the great need of wise laws 

 along these lines in time to save some of 

 our primeval resources. 



The great hope is that in the case of the 

 forests we may educate our people to replant 

 so that coming generations may see the hill- 

 sides and much of the valley covered with 

 valuable timber. The reason why this mat- 

 ter is not fully presented in our schools is 

 because of the lack of information on the 

 part of our teachers. The teachers cannot 

 teach what they do not know themselves, 

 and many of these teachers belong to a time 

 when but very little was thought of what 

 we call nature study. This matter can be 

 presented in connection with geography, his- 

 tory and botany. An outline covering the 

 important subjects may be placed in the 

 hands of the teachers through the school 

 officers. It is the plan of the Forest Service, 

 through men who are interested in the De- 

 partment of Education, to furnish such an 

 outline and with it the subject-matter, so 

 that teachers can easily become familiar with 

 the material and, at the same time, have it 

 on hand for class work. The writer has 



been conducting a large personal corre- 

 spondence, and finds teachers are anxious 

 to do this work. He also finds that it is 

 possible with matter already printed by the 

 Forest Service to get much of this informa- 

 tion into the hands of the teachers at an 

 early date. It is easy to theorize; it is much 

 more important to tell what can be done 

 from the Chapter of Experience. 



The writer is connected with the Southern 

 Manual Training High School, in Philadel- 

 phia, and plans to give some definite instruc 

 tion to a class of boys every week. One of 

 the first things to have in the school room 

 for help is the new Forestry Map, which 

 gives the pupils a definite idea of the loca- 

 tion and vast area of our National Forests. 

 The Forest Service is willing to furnish the 

 Primer of Forestry, written by Gifford 

 Pinchot, National Forester, which will give 

 the teacher and pupils much information 

 that is important. It is the plan with the 

 class in our High School to make excursions 

 so that they will have practice in identify- 

 ing trees by their trunks and winter buds, 

 then later to recognize them by their leaves. 

 An attempt will be made to collect cross 

 sections of medium-sized trees so as to show 

 the bark and the annual growth. At the 

 same time to collect pieces of wood showing 

 the natural veining so that finished lumber 

 can be easily recognized. In order to do 

 the best kind of work in any school, it will 

 be necessary to have a good reference 

 library. 



Prof. Hugh P. Baker, of the Penn- 

 sylvania State College of Forestry, pre- 

 sented a paper on the subject, "Forest 

 Schools." Dwelling upon the necessity 

 for rigid and comprehensive training in 

 any and every line of work, and the in- 

 creasing tendency toward specializa- 

 tion, Professor Baker laid stress on the 

 importance of giving full care and at- 

 tention to the education and training 

 of Fore<:lers — not, perliap.-, en account 

 of any great financial rewards that may 

 be secun.'d tlirimgh following the pro- 

 fession of forestry, but because of the 



urgent necessity for trained, practical 

 men, capable of handling in an efficient 

 manner big projects in forestry work. 

 The paper was a thoroughly interesting 

 one, and in a later issue of Conserva- 

 tion it will be published in full. A 

 number of other papers, read during 

 the meeting, and omitted because of 

 lack of space in this issue, will also be 

 incorporated in early issues of this mag- 

 azine. 



The business of th'j meeting having 

 been transacted, and the program com- 

 pleted, the session adjourned. 



