89 



of the manifold values of this great natural resource. If this is done we 

 must have a different type of text-book in Forestry for the graded schools. 

 Probably the main appeal of such texts should be the economic. Sad as it 

 may seem, this is apparently the most successful of all lines of attack. 

 Whether you desire to have a bill passed by the legislature, or to stir a 

 great mass of people to action you practically insure success by working 

 along economic lines. It is almost certain that if educational work in 

 Forestry results in continued interest and ultimately develops a new 

 mental altitude regarding the preservation and development of our timbered 

 areas, it must have underlying it this economic relation. The type of 

 work that should be done lies fairly clear in my mind. There are many 

 men in this country who could give us such texts, but the immediate need 

 is to realize the importance of centralizing such an educational movement 

 if we hope for a new view-point as to our natural resources on the part 

 of the next generation. 



Educational policies as they relate to the land owner are of quite differ- 

 ent sort. He should be taught in some way or other to classify his land, 

 separating at least roughly between that suitable for annual crops and that 

 suited primarily for forestral purposes. He should be encouraged to plant 

 trees in such areas on his farm and should be advised as to what particular 

 forms he should use in his particular case. We have not watched over the 

 land owner's interests as we should. We have awakened his interest 

 in tree planting and then left him at the mercy of any tree salesman who 

 might visit him. We have left him in utter ignorance of the ecologic condi- 

 tions necessary for the successful growth of the different species of eco- 

 nomic trees. 



Again there should be, and this in plain untechnical language, instruc- 

 tion in estimating the value of his timber crop. He does not know how 

 many thousands of board feet his woodland is carrying to the acre, neither 

 has he any method of estimating it ; he does not know the differing values 

 of the various species nor the modifications in their values due to size, to 

 defects, or distance from the mill. In marketing his crop he must rely 

 wholly upon the honesty of the purchaser. This condition does not obtain 

 as regards any other land product and until it is remedied but little pro- 

 gress can be hoped for in woodland forestry. Of course, bulletins have 

 been issued by the National Forest Service and by the states, of high 

 value to those who can carefully study them, but I can see a small hand- 

 book of from thirty to fifty pages which would do more in the effective 

 education of the woodland owner than a library of the finely scientific 

 bulletins which have so greatly aided the student but have not as yet met 

 the real needs of the landowner in any practical way. Evidently the edu- 

 cation of the landowner is one of the most important features in any sane 

 forestal educational policy. The maintenance of existing areas in any- 

 thing approaching a normal stand, the utilization of waste areas for timber 

 production, the increase of values by improving the quality of the timber 

 whether by silvi-cultural methods or changing the proportion of the 

 species in the stand, all depend on such education. We have failed to give 

 him any adequate information in a straightforward, understandable way 

 as to the length of his investment or the time which must elapse before 



