REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROFESSION OF FORESTRY. 93 



EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROFESSION OF 



FORESTRY. 



E. E. BOGUE. 



Forestry, not lumbering, is a comparatively new subject in America 

 and its requirements, even to the otherwise well educated, are either mis- 

 taken or unknown to many. 



In all technical education one must have a good foundation upon which 

 to build, and this is especially true of the subject of forestry. One man 

 who has been in the field several years says that he knows of no subject 

 that taxes a man's resources as does forestry. He is expected to see 

 things, and when he does see them, be able to interpret what they mean. 

 There are many who can see that here is a two and there is a two, but 

 there are fewer persons who can put these two twos together and make 

 four of them. In this work one is expected to be able to break a bucking 

 bronco one day and write up an accurate report on a hitherto unexplored 

 region the next. Many there are who can make fine speeches and sway 

 the public thought and others that can make cam]), run lines with hand 

 compass, and perform a large number of the many duties that fall to the 

 man in the field work, but in forestry one should be able to do all these 

 things. A man should be very thoroughly grounded in botany as it is 

 taught in the laboratory, but even then when he goes out into a new 

 region it will take him several weeks to find out with what species of 

 plants he has to deal. However, if he is not well grounded in botany 

 it is not likely that he will ever find out very much about the plants. 



The forester has chiefly to do with trees and these trees are entirely 

 dependent upon a great number of natural phenomena, so that if one 

 is going to deal with trees intelligently he must know as much as 

 possible about the factors that influence tree growth. How is he going 

 to acquaint himself with these factors? He must first have a mind 

 trained to think. It is likely that natural ability plays a great part, 

 but trained ability helps out a good deal. I should like it if every 

 man who comes to study forestry with me had read at least six books 

 of Virgil or its equivalent in Latin. He should then be prepared to 

 handle scientific names intelligently. The lack of a knowledge of this 

 language was forcibly brought to my mind when I found a man who 

 has received the degree of Master of Science from one of our large 

 western universities and had spelled occidentalis (o-x-i-d-e-n-t-a-1-i-s). 

 Even more ludicrous mistakes are not rare in the notebooks of some of 

 the students who think they have no time for study of a dead language. 

 Although it is no longer spoken, except in Iceland, Latin lives and will 

 continue to live as long as science lasts. It looks as if there w^ere a lack 

 of harmony when we say Salix alba, Quercus alba, Hicoria alba, Picea 

 canadensis, Amelanchier canadensis, and so on. It is only those who 

 who have fundamental training who will not shudder at the a])parent 

 confusion in Latin terms. 



Our English language is so poorly inflected that we scarcely realize 



