55 



meant that a lot of men, half edncated in forestry, were solng to he turned 

 loose on the conntry as trained foresters. That wonid he the most serions set- 

 hack that our forest work could have, and any influence that niijrht he hrousjlit 

 to hear aj,Minst it would he a ijood thinjj; to he hrouuht to hear. That would 

 put us in the same position that the medical profession wtmld he put in if a lot 

 of people could he turned out as regular doctors who had had only six months' 

 or a year's training. The profession of forestry and the training for it is an 

 entirely different thing from this most desirahle spread of general information 

 ahout forest tojtics. 



Now, it is (luite possihle — and I should like to make the offer very heartily— 

 if this matter goes through the lAtrest Service can he of use to the different 

 land-grant colleges and to the experiment stations in giving advice when 

 called upon, and, perhaps, in reconnnending men or furnishing puhlications, or 

 in any other similar way. And I want to say that we should he only too glad 

 if in any of these directions we can he of use to you if this matter goes 

 through. I feel very strongly indeed about it, because we have been taking 

 this up, and our attention has been called to it in the Forest Service in the last 

 two or three years, that the most desirahle thing that could happen to the 

 Forest Service in this country would he to make the general rough outlines of 

 it generally known, and. as Professor Green has very well said, the solution 

 of this question is in the minds of the people. 



C. A. Keffkk. of Tennessee. It seems to me that the matter of forestry edu- 

 cation in the land-grant colleges has about the same relation to technical 

 forestry education as has the general course which a college gives to a special 

 course in medicine. In many and, in fact, most of the colleges students who 

 have taken the biological-science course are given credit for it when they come 

 to take their special courses in medicine, and there is a gain to all the people 

 wherever the preliminary coui'se in forestry is offered to students at home 

 before they shall undertake the technical courses of the larger profession, the 

 technical courses that they must have in order to go into the business as 

 foresters. There is a gain, then, from the student's point of view and there 

 is economy from the student's point of view in offering in the land-grant 

 colleges lines of work that shall lead and shall prepare for the more technical 

 course that the forestry schools offer. I can see no advantage in multiplying 

 technical forestry schools. The country has now a Forest Service. These 

 courses would appeal to the students, and we should inevitably prepare men in 

 advance of the demands of the country, and it seems to me that this would be 

 a misfortune. Aside from that, relief would be given to those professors who 

 are attempting to teach forestry in the laud-grant colleges in addition to their 

 regular work. In Tennessee, and I think generally in land-grant colleges, 

 instruction is given by the horticulturist or the botanist, whose duties in his 

 original line would seem to require all his time. There is, then, need of relief 

 in this way in this direction, and there is no doubt that instruction offered by 

 experts should be just as valuable in this line as in any other line of scientific 

 research. I myself have found that there is hardly a more interesting sub.iect 

 for the student than forestry. It is a line of work that has two phases. There 

 is the biological phase, which so many enjoy, and then there is that larger 

 application of the trend of a great principle in general mechanics which is 

 yet to be developed, and it seems to me, as one factor in the resources of the 

 country, we have in forestry one of the subjects that ought to have a large 

 place in the work of the land-grant institutions. If these land-grant insti- 

 tutions came closer into the lives of the people this would help us in developing 

 the national resources. With forestry there is quite as much need of conserva- 

 tion as of development. We have reached a point where the business of lum- 



