PROBLEMS IN FORESTRY EDUCATION 647 



foresters to set them right in these problems must be ascribed to the 

 difference in their previous training and to their consequently different 

 viewpoints. The importance of viewpoint is often overlooked. That 

 the civil engineer cannot deliver the goods needed in a logging camp 

 unless he has had many years of practical experience was most forcibly 

 brought out at the Pacific Logging Congress in Spokane in 19 13.® The 

 forest schools of the West had shown their ability to meet this situation 

 and were particularly urged to extend their courses in logging engineer- 

 ing. The men from these forest schools have made good in this ca- 

 pacity after a surprisingly short period of apprenticeship, and that in 

 the face of a prejudice developed against technical men because of the 

 failure of the civil engineer in this work. 



Very little of the technical work in wood preservation is being han- 

 dled in a broad scientific manner in this country. It is chiefly in the 

 hands of chemists, mechanical engineers, and so-called practical men. 

 They have little knowledge of the structure of wood and practically 

 none of decay. A few foresters have become interested in the work 

 and their influence has been of tremendous value, even though they had 

 practically no specialized university training in wood preservation. If 

 we could stop here a moment to consider the really valuable and lasting 

 contributions to the fields of work ordinarily referred to as the minor 

 fields of forestry, such as logging engineering, wood preservation, tim- 

 ber testing, and in fact most of the work in forest products, it would 

 be very evident that the men with the forest-school training have been 

 delivering the goods. From the standpoint of results, it therefore seems 

 quite evident that logging engineering and forest products are legiti- 

 mate fields for the forest schools to develop, and furthermore that it is 

 their duty to develop them, if these lines of work are to be placed on a 

 really efficient basis in this country. If the forest schools have been 

 able to get results from the meager, and from an educational stand- 

 point inefficient, methods of teaching the minor lines, what will they 

 not be able to produce if they will but develop these lines properly? 



As suggested by the Forester, the" work of the engineers, the bota- 

 nists, physicists, and chemists has been on the wrong tack. The special 

 training we have given our students along these lines has been meager, 

 yet the foresters have been able to make good because their training 

 has been broad and their viezvpoint different. 



From another standpoint, namely, that of university organization, 

 these new lines of development in forestry belong to the forest schools. 



•Proceedings, Pacific Logging Congress, 1913; George M. Connvall, Sec'y, 

 Portland, Ore. 



