FAKMEBS'' STATE CO^STGRESS. 409 



abroad to finish their forestry education in the more advanced institu- 

 tions, but it has been conceded that conditions in the United States do not 

 malve it expedient to adopt the foreign methods. 



In the United States the three most widely recognized forestry schools 

 are Yale, Cornell and at Biltmore, N. C, known as the Biltmore Forest 

 School, on the Vanderbilt estate. The latter, however, does not give a 

 degree, its course being for two years only. At Yale and Cornell four 

 years are required to obtain a degree, unless the student is a graduate of 

 another university, in which case he can graduate in two years. Half of 

 the last two years is spent among the mountains in practical study. 

 There is a long list of other universities and colleges which offer second- 

 ary courses in forestry. In most cases tliey are State universities. The 

 tendency in the larger schools is, however, to make forestry a separate 

 department. 



The United States Policy. — The Bureau of Forestry, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, has as its policy the encouragement and 

 the protection of forestry and the forests, from which policy the 

 most gratifying and practical results have been obtained. In circulars 

 issued from time to time during several years past, it has offered assis- 

 tance and advice to the lumbermen and owners of woodlands, advice and 

 practical assistance on the ground in the handling of their forests. Of 

 late more requests for aid from the lumber concerns have been received 

 than they can respond to — requests from the balsam forests of Maine to 

 the long-leaf pine region of Texas; from the hardwood mountain regions 

 of the Carolinas to the red domains of California and Washington. The 

 motive of such a proposition is to ascertain just what timber there is on 

 the specified tracts, what the land will yield under a certain prescribed 

 regime, what the regime is and whether or not it will pay in the end. 



In no previous year has such progress in forestry been made as 

 during the year just past, and at no time has public sentiment been so 

 marked. The practical forest work in the woods was better in quality 

 and greater in amount than ever before. But great though the progress 

 has been in comparison with other years, it is yet actually small. The 

 saving of the forests by wise use is but little greater than it was a year 

 ago, except for the wider spread of a knowledge of the nature and objects 

 of forestry. The means available, are yet too feeble to make much im- 

 pression on the gigantic task of preventing the forest destruction. The 

 greatest interest manifested and the rapid progress of sentiment for 

 forest preservation during the last year has been nowhere more con- 

 spicuous than in the Western States. The greater part of it may be 

 traced directly to the growing desire for development in irrigation which 

 followed the passage of the national reclamation law. 



The operations of the United States Department of Forestry have 

 been devoted to five great divisions: forest management of both public 

 and private lands, forest investigation, forest extension, forest products 



