54 



management of the forest-reserve business has been such as to be very gi'atify- 

 ing to the Anicriciui people; and yet we need to have, in oi'der to carry that 

 work out to its fullness, a better, a higher intelligence among the people as to 

 the possibilities of forestry — as to what it is reasonable to expect from forests. 

 How can we spread that information, is the question. It seems to me that that 

 could be best undertaken by the land-grant college. 



It seems to me that these land-grant colleges are especially fitted for this 

 work. Forestry is an agricultural subject, and the subjects which are generally 

 taught in our agricultural colleges bear with directness upon forestry, and for- 

 estry could be added to these courses very easily. My idea is this, that we 

 ought to look upon this matter of instruction in foresti'y in our agricultural 

 colleges as a part of the national policy of spreading correct information in 

 regard to forestry through this country. Some one may raise the argument 

 that iron and concrete and cement are largely replacing wood in construction. 

 That is true to a large extent, and yet, in siiite of all that, the per capita con- 

 sumption of wood has increased since the substitution of these other materials 

 for wood has come into vogue. 



GiFFORD PiNCHOT, of the Forcst Service. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen. I am 

 particularly glad to have a chance to say a word on this matter, because I feel 

 very strongly, indeed, the desirability of the work that Professor Green has laid 

 before you. I think we may fairly divide instruction in forestry into two per- 

 fectly separate and clear-cut parts, just exactly as we may divide instruction in 

 almost any other professional subject In the same way. On the one band is 

 that instruction which is intended to make professionals who will ^iractice law 

 or medicine or forestry, or whatever it may be — giving their whole lives to it; 

 and on the other side is the instruction upon which the general intelligence of 

 the country is based, the instruction that a man needs who is going to give his 

 life to something else ; and as I understand Professor Green, it is the second of 

 these two lines of instruction that he is advocating. I have gotten from Doctor 

 True a statement of instruction in forestry in the land-grant colleges, and the 

 figures show that 33 of the colleges are at present engaged in giving such in- 

 struction, two or three of them preparing men for professional work, the others 

 teaching what may be called " agricultural forestry." Now. we are not going to 

 find it possible at any time, I think, to bring trained men in contact with the 

 farmer's wood lot unless in the future we should change our ideas of the Gov- 

 ernment entirely and begin State supervision of the lumber business. The 

 handling of the wood lot by the farmer is going to control forestry over areas 

 w^hich are astonishingly large. For instance, there are now at least twice as 

 many acres in wood lots in farms as tliere are in national reserves. And if 

 a man who owns it can understand how to handle it, or, if he does not, can 

 employ a professional forester to come and show him how, there is an enormous 

 gain; and, on the other hand, if the men who pass through the land-grant col- 

 leges who are not going to make forestry a profession can have the same knowl- 

 edge as a student in a l)usiness college has about law, which does not fit him to 

 be a lawyer but is of the very greatest service to him in his work, then I think 

 a very great service has been rendered. I see no reason whatever, if things go 

 on as they are going now, why we should not have better intelligence among the 

 masses of our people about forestry than any other country in the world. I 

 think our people now understand what forestry means better than any other 

 nation. Forestry is a live topic here, and it has never been more live and more 

 prominent in the minds of the people than it is just now. All of that means to 

 me that this is a most desirable thing to do, and I want to back it up just so 

 far as I am able to. I would not want to l)ack it nji — and I want to make that 

 perfectly clear, and I should be comi»elled to back the other view — if this 



