NOTES AND COMMENTS 1063 



When the writer organized the first forest school on this continent, 

 some twenty years ago, the first question to be settled was naturally 

 what its curriculum should be. It would have been possible to turn it 

 into a vocational course, teaching the little which at the time would 

 have sufficed for such practical work, as was then calling for men — 

 the artisan's attitude. It was, however, deliberately decided to shape 

 the four-year course as if forestry proper, with all that this implies, 

 had been practiced in the country forever and would be practiced by 

 the men passing through the course eventually — a professional course, 

 the artist's attitude. The writer used to begin some of his courses with 

 the, to some of the students, disturbing remark : "The contents of this 

 course you will probably not be called to apply for the next decade or 

 more, but you are bound to know them in order to secure a proper pro- 

 fessional attitude, and when it comes to their application you will be 

 handicapped if you have not systematically studied the subject-matter." 



There is another thought, which is sometimes lost sight of, namely, 

 that a complicated profession like forestry must tend more and more to 

 specialization, and such specialization calls for different characteristics 

 in men and calls for different kinds of education. Yet only he is effi- 

 cient in his special corner who has a thorough realization of the bearing 

 of his specialty to the general scheme of things, and for that he needs 

 the systematic study of all phases of the subject. 



It is to some extent true, what one of the contributors to the sym- 

 posium tentatively suggests, that managers are born, not made, and he 

 who is not so born may not acquire the ability to become a manager by 

 a university course — not all men need to become supervisors ! — but the 

 born manager cannot but be benefited by systematic study of the whole 

 machine in which he is a cog. 



B. E. F. 



The Blister Rust Situation 



On November 13 a meeting of the Committee on the Suppression of 

 the Pine Blister in North America was held at Pittsburgh, Pa. The 

 conference was attended by some thirty representatives from the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, various States, and the various Canadian 

 provinces. In the absence of the chairman, Prof. W. Wheeler, the 

 meeting was presided over by Clyde Leavitt. Among the more impor- 

 tant points brought out at the conference may be mentioned the fol- 

 lowing : 



I. Comparatively little definite information is available regarding the action of 

 the blister rust in Europe, but such evidence as is available seems to indicate that 



