PROBLEMS IN FORESTRY EDUCATION 651 



highest grade of instruction. Particularly is this true if the graduate 

 work is to offer thorough opportunity for specialization, as it must. 

 The idea of graduate work and specialization are inseparable ; when we 

 think of the one we think of the other. 



There are some indications that the work of the graduate schools 

 may in time be more or less differentiated. Thus, for example, Har- 

 vard is making a specialty of the "lumber business," and furthermore 

 has in the Arnold Arboretum no competition in the form of a graduate 

 laboratory for the study of dendrology. Yale has in the past furnished 

 the majority of forest-school teachers, and is now taking up "tropical 

 forestry" as a specialty, in which she will probably never have any real 

 competition. At Washington we have for some time been specializing 

 in "logging engineering" and "wood preservation." This whole prob- 

 lem will probably work itself out in time, as it has in other technical 

 lines, with the result that the different schools will be especially attrac- 

 tive for students in certain specialized fields of work. 



With a clear differentiation of the undergraduate and graduate work, 

 the graduate schools should also be able to exert a wholesome influence 

 on the undergraduate standard by controlling the quality of work they 

 will accept for admission. On the other hand, we may be sure that the 

 undergraduate schools will have a good influence upon those limiting 

 themselves to graduate work, because there will always be some of the 

 former of such high standard that they will prod the latter along in 

 case they do not keep ahead of the game. 



The system of specialization in various lines will demand a pretty 

 free allowance of electives in the undergraduate courses, in order that 

 the student may take the work of most advantage to him as prerequi- 

 sites to his specialty. Would it not, for example, be far better that a 

 student who intends to specialize in forest products be allowed to sub- 

 stitute more chemistiT or mechanical engineering for the work in topo- 

 graphic surveying? Although we must guard our curriculum most 

 carefully against a degeneration into the trade-school grade of work, a 

 careful analysis of the various subjects in the light of the practical 

 work the graduate is called upon to do shows that the curriculum can 

 be much more thoroughly correlated with the work of the world than 

 it has been in the past without any danger of lowering the standard. 



By way of summary, it may be emphasized : 



(i) That the legitimate field of the forest schools include all the 

 work in lumbering, logging engineering, wood preservation, all phases 

 of products work ; in fact, all work pertaining to trees, forests, and 

 forestry that ties in better and can be handled more advantageously in 



