12 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



them with two to five year curricula, leading to a degree, while some 

 40 run elementary or short courses. 



There must be now well-nigh 5,000 students occupying themselves 

 with the subject in one way or another. In 21 of the degree-conferring 

 institutions alone over 3,500 students are enrolled for longer or shorter 

 courses, and not less than 1,200 may be found working for a degree 

 under the guidance of over 100 instructors. 



From 22 of these institutions, by April, 1915, there had issued 

 around 1,200 graduates, but less than 70 per cent of these, or more 

 precisely 803, were engaged in strictly forestry lines. 



It is evident the educational development is overdone except in so 

 far as it may be claimed that a good forestry course furnishes as good 

 a general education for life as any other university course; and more- 

 over, it fits a man for a number of positions outside the regular line. 



Eventually, it may be expected, the number of instiitutions giving a 

 high-grade forestry education will be reduced and an increase of 

 schools of lower grades for ranger service, which more than the high- 

 grade schools need to be adapted to local conditions, will be found 

 useful. 



While there are a few ranger schools in existence, development 

 in this direction is still desirable. 



The earlier schools had to overcome the difficulty of lack of experi- 

 enced teachers, lack of practical demonstrative objects, and lack of 

 text-books. These difficulties have to some extent been removed, yet 

 they still exist and the "eking-out" process will have to continue for a 

 while, for forestry practice, especially silviculture, is still largely un- 

 developed, even in the administration of the National Forests. In this 

 respect, again the State of Pennsylvania seems to have taken the lead. 



Forestry practice is largely built on empiricism, and the accumula- 

 tion of experience takes time. 



Meanwhile, the modern more scientific spirit of attacking problems 

 upon the basis of experiment and systematic investigation has made 

 praiseworthy progress. 



Within the last three years the Forest Service has systematized its 

 investigatory work to an efficiency that rivals the work of the German 

 and Austrian experiment stations (which had a start of 40 years), at 

 least in plan, and may make these older investigators envious of the 

 financial support which the Service can give to this work, from 

 $300,000 to $400,000 being devoted to it. 



So far, however, the accent in the investigations is still laid on the 



