192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



laboratory study, to know the trees and shrubs in other re- 

 gions. This is of great importance, for a forester may be 

 called to Texas, or to California, or to Montana, or to other 

 regions, and he must, of course, be famihar with the trees in 

 advance. In connection with this course in forest botany and 

 with the course in silviculture the students study all the 

 natural laws which influence the growth and development of 

 trees, and in fact every factor which has to do with the life 

 of the forest. A careful study is thus made of the habits and 

 characteristics of all the American trees and forests, including 

 their behavior in different regions and under different condi- 

 tions of soil and situation, of light and growing space, in 

 association with different trees ; an.d as affected by fire, ex- 

 cessive lumbering, wind, and other adverse conditions, so far 

 as knowledge of these exist. In the first year a course is 

 given in forest measurements, which includes the methods 

 of estimating wood and timber and of studying the growth 

 and production of trees. In the first year students are also 

 instructed in the whole subject of tree planting and -in the 

 ways of making thinnings for the general improvement of 

 the forest and for reproduction. In the second year the sub- 

 ject of the business management of forests is taken up, includ- 

 ing, in addition to a study of our conditions, a consideration 

 of the methods used in Europe, where forestry has been prac- 

 ticed for over a century. The second year men are trained 

 also in the study of the commercial woods, both in the iden- 

 tification of dressed lumber and in the study of their technical 

 properties and commercial uses. They are given courses also 

 in forest insects, diseases of trees, methods of lumbering, his- 

 tory of forestry, forest law, and the principles of forest admin- 

 istration on large tracts and in government and state service. 

 But all of this work would be of comparatively little value 

 except for the continual practice in the woods. At the pres- 

 ent time the first year men are making thinnings in a forest 

 of about 400 acres near New Haven. The trees are now 

 being marked under my own supervision by the students, 

 and at least a part of the timber will be actually cut and piled 

 into cord wood by the men. At the present time our second 

 year class is in the lumber woods, a part being in the lumber 

 camps in northern Maine and the remainder in the camps of 

 northwestern Pennsylvania. In the spring term the whole 



