DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY 



The first step in the organization of a department of forestry was taken 

 on December 17, 1910, when the Board of Trustees appointed a professor 

 of forestry. This professor was on duty at the College of Agriculture 

 from January 26 to February 24, 191 1, and on June 15, 191 1, he began 

 regular work at the College. During the year 1911-1912 the staff was 

 increased by the appointment of an assistant professor, who began work 

 on January i. 



EQUIPMENT 



In the winter of 1911-1912 the Legislature appropriated $100,000 for 

 a forestry building at the College of Agriculture. During the year the 

 plans for the building have been completed. 



Eight woodlots and a farm of thirty-eight acres on the imiversity farms 

 have been placed in charge of this Department. The woodlots include 

 stands of white pine, hemlock, and hardwoods, and present a wide variety 

 of silvicultural conditions. Part of the area is open land, suitable for 

 experimental plantations. 



The Department has begun the collection of an equipment of forestry 

 instruments and of materials for illustrating class work. The forestry 

 library has been materially increased. This being a new Department, 

 the purchase of much office equipment has also been necessary. 



AIMS OF THE DEPARTMENT 



Forestry uses certain classes of soil for raising crops ; an agricultural 

 college without a forestry department is therefore incomplete. The 

 Department of Forestry at Cornell University aims to take its proper 

 place among the other departments of the College of Agriculture in 

 helping to develop the argricultural resources of the State. 



The agricultural resources with which this Department is concerned 

 are lands that cannot be used more profitably for cultivated crops or for 

 pasture ; that is, forest lands. Whether the tract of forest land is a farm 

 woodlot of only one acre and is to be used for raising a very minor crop 

 among other more important crops, or whether the tract is a hundred 

 thousand acres and is to be managed permanently by a lumber company 

 as the only business in which it engages, is immaterial. It is the function 

 of this Department to help the owners of both these tracts, just as it is 

 the function of the Department of Pomology to help, on the one hand, 

 the general farmer who wishes to plant a dozen fruit trees to supply his 



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