SPECIALIZATION VS. GENERALIZATION IN FORESTRY 



EDUCATION 



By R. D. Forbes 



Superintendent of Forestry, Louisiana Department of Conservation 



Events of the past year have served to crystalHze what appears to 

 have been a sentiment current for some time in the profession, namely, 

 that during the past few years forestry in this country has not made 

 the progress which it should have made and which was augured by 

 the success of the forest conservation movement during the first ten 

 years of the century. It would be presumptuous for one who has been 

 at work in forestry only six or seven years to judge of the extent to 

 which our progress has slowed down, but taking it for granted that 

 some slowing down has taken place, it may not be impertinent to 

 attempt to analyze the cause. The writer does not flatter himself 

 that he has discovered more than one or two of the probably numerous 

 reasons for our failure to forge ahead at the same rate at which the 

 forestry movement started out, but he does believe that it must be 

 apparent to everyone that the youth and inexperience of the pro- 

 fession as a whole have had something to do with it. There is no 

 denying that the best of native ability, trained under the most approved 

 methods in the schools, and fired by a deep and genuine desire to be 

 of public service, cannot make up for long experience in the world 

 of trees and men, and that at least some of the mistakes of the pro- 

 fessional foresters may be traced to their lack of maturity and to their 

 inexperience. Time, and time alone, may be trusted to remedy this. 

 But is there not another cause for our slow progress, one which lies 

 at the very bottom of things, and which can be remedied only by 

 conscious effort, based on careful thought? I submit that there are 

 some fundamental errors in our forestry education which may account 

 for our failure in latter years to build swiftly and surely upon the 

 foundations laid by the early proponents of forest conservation in 

 America. 



The average forester engaged in administrative work, or in any 

 other line of work not directly connected with teaching, is very apt 

 to hesitate to express his opinion on educational matters. This hesi- 



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