374 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



converting them into State parks, etc. The Federal Government 

 established a Forestry Division, whose duty was in the first instance 

 to collect information. Some twelve years ago a wealthy young 

 American, Mr Gifford Pinchot, came to study forestry in Germany 

 and France, and he has been followed by half a dozen others, all of 

 whom have made their studies under the enlightened guidance of 

 my old friend, Sir D. Brandis. Soon after Mr Pinchot's return to 

 America, Mr George Vanderbilt bought a forest estate of 100,000 

 acres, and put it under systematic management, first by Mr GifFord 

 Pinchot, and then by a distinguished young German forest officer, 

 Dr Schenck, with the main object of showing that forests can be 

 worked profitably. About two years ago Dr Schenck started a 

 forest school in connection with Mr Vanderbilt's estate, and last 

 summer I had the pleasure of conducting six of his pupils through 

 some of the most interesting Bavarian forests, these young men 

 having come to learn how forest matters are managed in the old 

 country. But this is only one instance. At the present moment 

 forest faculties exist at three American universities. One of these 

 has been endowed by the State of New York, who have assigned 

 30,000 acres of forest for the practical instruction of the students. 

 The State of New York has spent £450,000, since 1897, on the 

 purchase of forest lands, the total area so far acquired being 

 1,000,000 acres. 



At another university a faculty of forestry has been endowed by 

 Mr Gifford Pinchot and his family, who have presented the uni- 

 versity with the sum of £30,000 for the purpose. But over and 

 above this, instruction in forestry is now given at about forty 

 other educational establishments in the States. 



Last, but not least, the Federal Government has inaugurated a 

 systematic forest policy. An area of 41,000,000 acres have, by 

 presidential proclamation, been declared "reservations," and a staff 

 of 9 superintendents, 39 supervisors, and 350 forest rangers have 

 been appointed. It is said that the patrolling of the reserved 

 forests by the rangers has to a marked degree reduced the number 

 of fires, has excluded timber trespassers, and enforced instructions 

 regulating the subject of sheep-grazing, timber-cutting, and sales. 

 All this is a small beginning, but it is a promising instalment; and 

 if the Federal Government persists in its policy, great benefits for 

 the people of the United States, the lumbering and wood-using 

 industries, will result, while the fear of a prospective timber 

 famine, which has laid hold of the mind of many enlightened 



