THE SITUATION 13 



forest products side — which at one time was not even held germane to 

 forestry — and the silvicultural side is as yet not fully considered. 

 Out of 162 listed problems nearly half are occupied with forest prod- 

 ucts and less than 30 with real forestry problems. 



To my mind the most important knowledge we are lacking is how to 

 solve the silvicultural problems for our species, for our soils and 

 climatic conditions, for the reproduction of the timber we are cutting, 

 and for the recuperation of our cut-over and wasted forest lands in 

 the East as well as in the West. When we have learned this lesson, we 

 may be justified in speaking of what the early pioneers talked of too 

 prematurely as "American" forestry. 



Meanwhile, a respectable literature has already accumulated ; a 

 large amount of information has been collected in bulletins and in the 

 14 volumes of the Forestry Quarterly, text-books are coming more 

 and more rapidly into existence, and in this direction altogether a 

 healthy development is to be noted. 



Finally, I must not in this rapid survey forget to refer to ourselves, 

 the Society of American Foresters and its members. 



That with the first graduate from an American forestry school 

 issuing in 1900 — and that then the only one — it was possible to organize 

 this Society in 1908 was, indeed, an unexpected feat. The Society 

 has, however, not grown in numbers apace with the output of profes- 

 sional foresters, for it does not yet contain 30 per cent of the outturn. 



In a manner its development reminds me of the early German pro- 

 fessional society of foresters, which was started about 1T95 and was to 

 contain only noted foresters — those of "achievement." It was based 

 on such a high plane that to get the essays of members printed in the 

 official organ they had to pass four censors. That this "high-brow" 

 society lasted at all in the then rather undeveloped state of the profes- 

 sion and science was due only to the indefatigable editor of the 

 Proceedings, and with his death the long moribund society collapsed 

 to make room very much later for a more democratic organization. 



May we not profit from this example of the failure of a too high 

 standard? While the latest attempt to democratize our Society has 

 failed of acceptance, the vote on changed membership requirements 

 allows the hope that soon the doors may be opened wider and a broad- 

 ening of membership become possible. 



The amalgamation of the aristocratic Proceedings with the demo- 

 cratic Forestry Quarterly may also contribute not to a lowering, but 



