News ayid Notes . 157 



The passage of the bill for the College of Forestry seemed 

 assured : it was an appropriation that had been made annually 

 for the past four years ; the success of the College during the five 

 years of its existence has not been doubted in any quarter ; the 

 number of students has doubled yearly and at last registration the 

 school was larger than any French or German forestry school ; 

 the students who have gone from it are now occupying important 

 positions in the National, the Philippine and various State 

 services. 



Concerning his action in vetoing the College appropriation 

 the Governor is reported to have said, " the operations of this 

 college of forestry have been subjected to grave criticism, as they 

 have practically denuded the forest lands of the State without 

 compensating benefits. I deem it wise, therefore, to withold ap- 

 proval of this item until a more scientific and more reasonable 

 method is pursued in the forestry of the lands now under control 

 of Cornell University." 



Of the Governor's desire to change the method of operations in 

 the Demonstration Forest little need be said, the question is 

 merely one of personal opinion orratherof professional judgment, 

 and those capable of doing so may judge. But his method of at- 

 tempting to change the policy in the Demonstration Forest is to 

 say the least extraordinary, namely, the abandonment of a school 

 of training to express disapproval of a method pursued by a con- 

 nected experimental department ; his method is more extra- 

 ordinary for the veto of the College appropriation in no way 

 affects the work in the Demonstration Forest ; nothing has been 

 accomplished but the ruin of a flourishing institution whereby 

 seventy young men are seriously handicapped in their careers. 

 Why? 



At a meeting of the trustees of the University of Maine held in 

 Orono, April 14, it was voted to establish a Department of Forestry 

 at the University, and President Fellows was authorized to em- 

 ploy a Professor of Forestry. The last State Legislature provided 

 the sum of $2,500 a year for the support of the Department. 



The Luquillo Forest Reserve containing 65,950 acres in Porto 

 Rico was created January 7, 1903 ; Dr. John Gifford will investi- 

 gate this reservation for the Bureau of Forestry during the com- 

 ing summer. 



