The Foresters' Calling 



EDUCATION IN FORESTRY 



SAMUEL T. DANA 



T? ORESTRY in the United States 

 I/ attained the dignity of a profession 

 about 50 years ago, largely because of 

 the inauguration and the rapid spread 

 of technical training. 



Two schools of forestry opened their 

 doors in 1898, the New York State Col- 

 lege of Forestry at Cornell University 

 and the Biltmore Forestry School on 

 the Vanderbilt estate near Asheville, 

 N. C. Both were headed by men who 

 had been trained in forestry in Ger- 

 many, B. E. Fernow at Cornell, and 

 C. A. Schenck at Biltmore. Their es- 

 tablishment, at a time when the oppor- 

 tunities for the practice of forestry 

 were few and too far between, required 

 vision and courage and was an essen- 

 tial step toward providing trained men, 

 without whom progress would have 

 continued to be slow and uncertain. 



In 1900 were established the Yale 

 School of Forestry and the Division of 

 Forestry in the University of Minne- 

 sota, which are today our oldest schools 

 in continuous existence. The school 



Above: A farm forester instructs a 4-H 

 group in ways to plant ar>d handle seedlings. 



at Cornell was discontinued in 1905 as 

 a result of legislative disapproval of 

 the management of a tract of Adiron- 

 dack forest land which had been 

 placed at its disposal. The one at Bilt- 

 more was discontinued shortly before 

 the outbreak of the First World War. 

 Several other institutions, however, in- 

 troduced forestry into their curricula, 

 and by 1914 schools of forestry were in 

 operation in all parts of the country. 



Today 22 schools are recognized by 

 the Society of American Foresters as 

 providing professional training of a 

 caliber to justify the admission of grad- 

 uates to the Society without further 

 proof of their competence. 



The first three schools of forestry 

 had different approaches to the meth- 

 ods of professional training. The school 

 at Cornell was established as a State 

 institution and comprised a 4-year un- 

 dergraduate program leading to the 

 bachelor's degree. That at Biltmore, a 

 private enterprise, also conferred a 

 bachelor's degree, although the course 

 in forestry covered only a year and was 

 devoted largely to practical work in 



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