1902.] YALE FOREST SCHOOL AND ITS PURPOSES. I9I 



policy in that State, manage the State forests, and assist pri- 

 vate owners by advice, or lead in federal forest matters, or to 

 take a position in a forest school or a college to give instruc- 

 tion in technical branches of forestry. This is the kind of 

 work which at the present time an all-around expert may be 

 called upon at any time to do and he must be prepared in 

 every branch of forestry. We believe that the sufficient pre- 

 liminary technical training can be given in two years, pro- 

 vided the student has previously received a thorough general 

 education. Our aim is to attract graduates of universities 

 and agricultural colleges and other collegiate institutions of 

 high standing. 



We recognize also that there is room for a large number 

 of men who require only a special training along certain lines. 

 Thus to carry out the details of managing a forest a complete 

 technical training, such as we design to give in New Haven, 

 is not required. A course such as is given in many of our 

 agricultural colleges, and particularly a course such as we 

 give at our summer school at Milford, Penn., is really all that 

 is necessary to start with ; the rest is common sense and prac- 

 tical experience. Thus a farmer does not need an extensive 

 technical training in forestry to manage his wood lot prop- 

 erly. What he most needs is to study how to care for his 

 woods as intelligently as, for instance, his corn field or his 

 silo. 



There is no question that the average farm wood lot is not 

 managed nearly as well as it should be, and as the farmer is 

 capable of caring for and managing it. But I have seen wood 

 lots as intelligently managed by farmers as by any expert for- 

 ester I ever saw. A farmer must be his own forester, and the 

 average New England farmer can be a very good forester if 

 he will only give the subject his attention. 



Our instruction at the Yale Forest School is divided into 

 two sections : the classroom work and the practical work in 

 the field. During the first year of the two-years course these 

 two branches of work are carried on together in New Haven, 

 but about a third of the second year is spent in the forests in 

 different parts of the East. The technical course includes 

 first of all a botanical study of the different species. The 

 students are required to be able to identify not only the trees 

 and shrubs growing in the vicinity of New Haven, but, by 



