FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 107 



American Foresters, an organization composed of professional 

 foresters. Sections now exist all over the United States. 



With the beginning of forestry as a recognized profession 

 in America came a sudden need for foresters. Almost over- 

 night the President had created millions of acres of National 

 Forests and Congress had appropriated money to administer 

 them. The nation needed men technically trained in the sci- 

 ence of managing woodlands to take care of these Federal for- 

 ests. There were very few such men in America. Worse still, 

 there were no schools in which to train them. In France, and 

 Germany schools existed where forestry was taught just as 

 other professions, but not until 1898 was this important step 

 in forest education taken in North America and in that year 1 

 Cornell established the first American forest school. Yale and 

 Michigan followed close after, and today, there are over twenty 

 schools of forestry in the United States to train professional 

 foresters. 



It is becoming increasingly important that the best technical 

 instruction be available, for after all, managing forests that 

 they may be kept at a high point of productivity is a difficult 

 art. Even today with thirty years of forest education and re- 

 search behind us, all too little is known about the ways of trees 

 and tree families. Here in America we are still in the pioneer 

 stages of scientific forestry. More or less adequate fire protec- 

 tion and conservative cutting represents the extent of federal 

 and state forest practice. As a result even our National Forests 

 are producing only a fraction of what they could produce with 

 the application of intensive forestry methods. 



The last five years have seen important changes in the for- 

 estry situation in America. 



