FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 71 



try has nuiltiplied out of all proportion to the demand or ihe 

 necessity for them. 



Owing to this increase in the number of schools and the 

 diversity in the amount and kind of instruction, a conference 

 of forest schools was held in Washington in December 191 1. 

 At this conference a committee consisting of the following dis- 

 tinguished men was appointed to draw up a curriculum which 

 shall set the standard for a first class forest school: 



Professor H, S. Graves, Chief Forester, United States ; Dr. 

 B. E. Fernow, Dean, Forestry Department, University of To- 

 ronto; Professor Filibert Roth, Dean, Forestry Department, 

 University of Michigan; Professor R. T. Fisher, Dean, Fores- 

 try Department, Harvard University; Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Ex- 

 Forester, United States. This standardization of the require- 

 ments for a professional forestry education has now been agreed 

 upon and it includes more work upon technical forestry lines 

 than is now given by this department. The opinion expressed 

 at this conference was so unanimous and the moral ability to en- 

 force that opinion is so powerful, that it would be worse than 

 useless to attempt to oppose it. To fail to bring the course up 

 to the present standard would not only place the University in 

 a false light, but would be exceedingly unfair to the students 

 for they would be spending four years in securing a degree not 

 recognized as of standard value by authorities and heads of the 

 profession which they are about to enter. 



The Department of Forestry is maintained by a special ap- 

 propriation, and entails little, if any, expense upon the Univer- 

 sity itself. Although students in agriculture pay no tuition, 

 forestry students are required to pay tuition, and yet have not 

 the benefit of an equal amount of instruction in the work of 

 their chosen profession. 



At the present time all important forestry schools have at 

 least two or three men on the instructional force, who give their 

 time solely to forestry subjects. Maine has one. Yet the fores- 

 try students represent about 5% of the total registration of 

 the University up to the present year. 



The inadequacy of the present appropriation made by the 

 state for this purpose is well illustrated by comparing the in- 

 crease in the number of students with the number of instruct- 

 ors and the funds available for the Department. 



