FORESTRY METHODS. 407 



This thought suggested the desirability of going a step farther: 

 namely, to provide at the same time for the education of professional 

 foresters, the future managers of the state's forest property as well 

 as of other timber properties. 



Cornell University was selected to undertake the experiment. A 

 bill was drafted and introduced into the legislature, early in Febru- 

 ary of last year, was passed and received the governor's signature 

 the end of March, and on April 14, 1898, the first fully equipped pro- 

 fessional school of forestry in this country, the New York State 

 College of Forestry, was established; the law providing for a direc- 

 tor, two instructors and other assistants, besides the entire staff of 

 teachers and the facilities of the university. 



EVERGREENS. 



ROY UNDERWOOD, LAKE CITY. 



This subject forms itself into two natural divisions respecting 

 the two great uses evergreens may have in the improvement of the 

 farm home: namely, first, their use from an economic standpoint, 

 such as in windbreaks for the orchard, shelter for the stock and pro- 

 tection for the house; and, second, their use in beautifying the sur- 

 roundings of the home. 



On the new homes which are daily being established here, in this 

 great fertile valley of the Mississippi, the first thought of the pio- 

 neer naturally turns to preparation for the long, cold winter, which 

 he knows must settle in and render his farm an unproductive piece 

 of waste land during six months of every year. After resolutely 

 facing the chilling winds for a few seasons, he begins to realize the 

 fact that "Nature, unaided, fails," that, even though he breaks the 

 barren sod of the prairie and yearly cloths it with fruitful harvests, 

 still he cannot stop here. Nature frowns upon the man who is con- 

 tent only to sow the crops of grain, which indeed are waving fields 

 of golden life, on which the whole race depends for its existence — 

 yet are those fields yearly planted by the sower but to be as often 

 stricken from the earth by the reaper in the harvest time. 



No, the hardy pioneer at once comes face to face with this, nature's 

 great unavoidable edict, "Sow thou that which shall endure, ii thou 

 wishest me to aid thee toward the goal of happy existence," and he 

 sees that sooner or later he must obey. If he builds himself a house, 

 he discovers that not rafts of shingles nor miles of building paper 

 nor tons of coal can bar winter's icy blasts from the comfort of his 

 hearth. If he stock his barn with animal and fowl, he quickly finds 

 that mountains of corn or stacks of ensilage cannot keep his flocks 

 free from the discouragements and sickness incident to the close 

 indoors, or, what is worse, a barbed-wire wind protection on the 

 outside. If he seeks to provide his family with the health-laden 

 fruit of the orchard and garden, he again is confronted with the in- 

 evitable drouth with which the Great Mother perpetually visits the 

 children of earth in her effort to teach them their error in so un- 

 blushingly despoiling her forests. 



