6 5 8 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



rigorous and competition more keen, 

 the advantage will increasingly lie with 

 those who have had technical training 

 in an academic institution. 



Today these schools give the holder 

 of an undergraduate degree in forestry 

 a sound training in fundamentals and 

 in the major branches of the profession. 

 They give the man with a master's de- 

 gree a somewhat broader foundation 

 and a more thorough knowledge of 

 some particular branch of the profes- 

 sion, and they give the holder of the 

 doctor's degree a sufficiently intensive 

 training to qualify him as a true 

 specialist. In light of the broad scope 

 of forestry, as it is now conceived, and 

 of its increasing complexity, the prob- 

 lem is to give the general practitioner 

 a training that will be comprehensive 

 without being superficial, and to give 

 the specialist a training that will be in- 

 tensive without being narrow. 



The successfull practice of forestry 

 requires a knowledge and a leadership 

 that can be supplied only by men with 

 a professional competence which is 



now difficult to acquire except at a 

 recognized school of forestry. At the 

 same time, there are many subordinate 

 positions that can be filled satisfac- 

 torily by men with a semiprofessional 

 or vocational training, just as there are 

 many positions in a hospital that can 

 be filled satisfactorily by nurses, labora- 

 tory technicians, and orderlies. Train- 

 ing of this kind has long been neglected 

 in forestry, but it is now being offered 

 at several institutions. The probability 

 is that it will increase in importance. 



SAMUEL T. DANA has been dean of 

 the School of Forestry and Conserva- 

 tion at the University of Michigan 

 since 1927. Before that, he served for 

 many years in the Branch of Research 

 in the Washington office of the Forest 

 Service, as Forest Commissioner of 

 Maine, and as director of the North- 

 eastern Forest Experiment Station. He 

 is a former president of the Society of 

 American Foresters and for 6 years was 

 editor in chief of its official publica- 

 tion, the Journal of Forestry. 



TEACHERS AND CONSERVATION 



JULIEN L. BOATMAN 



More and more colleges, teacher- 

 training institutions, and elementary 

 schools and high schools are offering 

 nontechnical instruction in problems 

 and practices of forest conservation 

 and the methods of teaching them. 

 For rural youths and adults, forestry 

 instruction is available through agricul- 

 tural extension services and vocational 

 agriculture courses. Several associa- 

 tions and foundations and similar 

 organizations also give education in 

 forest conservation. 



Many teachers agree that a good 

 place to start the broad field of con- 

 servation education, of which forestry 

 is an important segment, is in the lower 

 schools, in courses in general science 

 and social studies. 



An example is the series of illustrated 



bulletins published jointly by the In- 

 diana Department of Conservation, the 

 Department of Forestry and Conserva- 

 tion of Purdue University, and the 

 State Department of Public Instruc- 

 tion of Indiana. The material brings 

 out the relationships among forests, 

 soils, water, and wildlife. 



The Granite Falls School, of Gran- 

 ite Falls, Wash., has developed a course 

 in practical forestry that is open to 

 junior and senior students. 



In four teaching outlines prepared 

 by the Soil Conservation Service of the 

 Department of Agriculture, forest con- 

 servation is emphasized in its relation 

 to soil conservation. The outlines are 

 designed for elementary and secondary 

 schools. They list objectives, topics for 

 study or discussion, classroom activi- 



