470 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



In its nature, forestry is a very broad and comprehensive science. 

 As defined by Dr Houg-h, it is: "That branch of knowledge which 

 treats of woodlands, their formation, maintenance and renewal, the 

 influences that may eflfect their welfare, the methods employed in 

 their management, the removal, preparation and use of their pro- 

 ducts and the economies that may be gained by skillful operation." 

 It resembles agriculture and horticulture in that it deals with the 

 production of a soil crop but differs from them in the great number 

 of years which it takes for the maturing of the crop. Forestry involves 

 directly nearly all the natural sciences, such as botany, zoology, 

 entomolog'y, geology, mineralogy and chemistry, and indirectly it 

 involves a knowledge of history, political science and physics, me- 

 chanics, physical geography and meteorolog-y. It should be evident 

 from this that a college education is a foundation none too broad 

 for it to rest upon. Having this foundation, the student of forestry 

 must go to work and make himself thoroughly familiar with each 

 separate species of trees, their geographic distribution, their struct- 

 ure, habits of growth,how to propagate them, how and where to plant 

 them, and their value in the industries. Having mastered what is 

 known of these things, the student is confronted with the fact that 

 forestry is a comparatively new and undeveloped science. and that a 

 vast field of experiment and research is spread out before him. With 

 this in view, it is easy to see that it would give a person of average 

 intelligence all he could do to master the essentials of this voca- 

 tion and keep abreast with the advances which it must of necessity 

 make. 



In the line of pecuniary results, the field is not very promising in 

 this country. In European countries, with their elaborate forestry 

 system, forestry takes its place in importance by the side of horti- 

 culture and agriculture, and the demand for men in the regular ser- 

 vice and as teachers in the forestry schools is sufficient to warrant a 

 great number of students taking up the work each year. In Austo- 

 Hungary, for instance, there are over 30,000 men connected with the 

 forestry service, and Germany, with 25 per cent of her area devoted 

 to forestry, employs a like number. Besides this public service 

 there are numerous private land holders who devote part of their 

 domains to forestry and employ one or more foresters. 



In this country, the people are not awake to the necessity for sci' 

 entific forestry for the public welfare, and as for individual under" 

 takings along this line they are entirely out of the question with the 

 genuine Americans, on account of their slow returns. 



It is true that we have a number of extensive forest reserves, 

 with a prospect of more in the near future, which might seem to de- 

 mand the services of foresters. But these reserves have been estab- 

 lished with a view only of preserving them in their original 

 condition for the protection of water sheds or the preservation of 

 natural beaut}'^ spots, and with no idea of rendering them profitable 

 to the country by a system of forestry. Only a few men are em- 

 ployed in them, and these only for patroling to prevent stealing of 

 timber or setting of fires. 



A few states have established forestry commissions, which have 

 charge of the state forest reserves and general supervision over 



