VALUE OF PHYSICS AND OTHER FUNDAMENTAL 

 SUBJECTS TO STUDENTS IN FORESTRY. 



By Hugh P. Baker. 



In developing undergraduate courses in forestry in the Iowa 

 State College, the Pennsylvania State College and the New York 

 State College of Forestry at Syracuse, one of the first problems 

 was to arrange a program of work, in which there would be a 

 sufficient amount of foundation work to make the courses both 

 well balanced and adapted to the needs of the student. The 

 relative weight of fundamental subjects is measured by time. 

 The question of the relative weight of foundation subjects will 

 be rather a difficult one to settle. How much Chemistry should a 

 forestry student have ; how much Physics ; what part of his edu- 

 cation should modern language claim? Should the forester be a 

 mathematician and follow his elementary mathematics with a 

 course in Calculus, or even more advanced work, or is he suf- 

 ficiently prepared if he takes Elementary Algebra, Geometry and 

 Trigonometry? Should he follow Physics with Elementary Me- 

 chanics and more? 



In arranging a program of work for The New York State Col- 

 lege of Forestry at Syracuse in 1912, it seemed as if some of these 

 questions might be settled with more reason if their relation to 

 the main subject were more definitely analyzed. A request was 

 made therefore, upon some of the Departments giving this ac- 

 cessory instruction, for a statement as to the value of their par- 

 ticular line of work, for the student in forestry. The following 

 statements as to the value of Physics to the undergraduate stu- 

 dent in Forestry are presented largely with the idea of bringing 

 out a fuller discussion. The statements for each course are es- 

 sentially as submitted by Herbert H. Clark, A.M. (University of 

 Nebraska), Associate Professor of Physics in Syracuse Univer- 

 sity. 



Before bringing out the ways in which Physics may be essential 

 to the student in Forestry, it would seem that a statement of the 

 relative value of high school Physics might be of interest. The 

 problem of this College during the past year has been, not the 



