100 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUUE. 



reproduction, improvement of the crop, nursery practice, and forest planting. Lectures, recitations, ;I.IH| field 

 demonstrations. Ttiree hours, through the year. 



I. Forest protection. Methods of guarding against trespass, loss from fires, insects, and diseases; measures n> 

 prevent erosion, washing, and deterioration of soils. Lectures and recitations. Three hours, spring term. 



5. Timber physics and wood technology. Technical properties of wood and its uses. The course is arranged 

 to meet also the needs of students in civil engineering anil architecture, and others interested in the properties and 

 uses of wood. Lectures, recitations, anil laboratory work. Three hours, fall and winter. 



6. Exploitation. Methods and means employed in the harvest of forest products, logging, transportation, mill- 

 ing, and preparation of wood for market. Lectures and recitations. Three hours, winter term. Excursions to 

 actual operations and points of manufacture. 



7. Forest mensuration. Methods of ascertaining volume of felled and standing trees, of whole forest growths, 

 timber estimating, determining accretion of trees and stands. Lectures, recitations, and field work. Three hours, 

 winter and spring. 



8. Forest regulation. Principles and methods underlying the preparation of plans of management for contin- 

 uous wood and revenue production. Lectures and recitations. Four hours, fall term. Field work in summer. 



9. Forest administration. Organizing a forestry service, manner of employing and supervising labor, business 

 methods as applied to forest management. Lectures and recitations. Two hours, spring term. 



10. Forest valuation. Principles and methods of ascertaining the money value of forest growths at ditl'eroiit 

 ages for purposes of sales, exchanges, damage suits, etc. Lectures. Two hours, spring term. 



II. Forestry statics and finance. Application of the principles of finance to forest management; methods of 

 finding the most profitable form of management, determining rotation and expenditures with reference to revenue. 

 Lectures and recitations. Three hours, winter term. 



12. Forestry history and politics. Historical development of the economic and technical features of modern 

 forestry ; forestry conditions at home and abroad ; forests and forestry as factors in the household of the community 

 and nation ; basis and principles underlying forest policies of the State. The course will prove of value and interest 

 to students of political economy. Lectures only. Two hours, winter and spring. 



The only other institutions in the country which have given any attention to instruction in 

 forestry heretofore have been the land-grant colleges of the several States. Of these, twenty-two 

 have offered courses varying in length from a brief series of lectures to two full terms' work. 

 These are the agricultural colleges of Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, 

 Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, 

 Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ehode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and West 

 Virginia. Nine colleges touch upon forestry incidentally in connection with instruction in 

 other branches, such as botany and horticulture, namely, those of Virginia, North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Mississippi, Colorado, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Maine. Ten institutions report no 

 reference to the subject whatever. As to the character of the instruction in the courses in 

 forestry, it varies greatly in th? several institutions. The usual purpose is to give the students a 

 general idea of the influence of forests upon climate and water flow and of forest geography, with 

 more specific training iu identification of trees and in propagation and planting. 



It is evident that considered as a part of a general course in agriculture it is not feasible or 

 desirable to make forestry the major subject, as is necessary in a technical school; but the brief 

 courses ottered in the agricultural colleges have been very successful iu promoting public interest 

 in forest protection and silviculture. 



In 1895 there were introduced into Congress two bills providing for forestry education, one 

 (H. It. 8389) providing an appropriation of $5,000 to each of the agricultural colleges, to be 

 devoted either to instruction or providing object-lessons in the field; the other (II. li. 8390) 

 providing for a post-graduate school a national school of forestry in connection with the 

 Department of Agriculture and its Division of Forestry. 



No action beyond hearings before the Committee, on Agriculture, to which the bills were 

 referred, resulted. 



FEDERAL FOREST POLICY. 



The most important development in establishing a forest policy in the United States lias been 

 the change in the disposition of its public timber lauds as a result of the educational campaign of 

 the American Forestry Association. This association in 1888 presented a comprehensive bill, 

 drawn by the chief of the Division of Forestry, providing for the withdrawal from entry or sale 

 of all public, timber lands not fit for agricultural use, and for their proper administration under 

 technical advice (S. 1470 and S. 1779, Fiftieth Congress, first session). 



Modifications of this bill were introduced from year to year and their enactment urged. In 



