308 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



vindicated. How wretched the system of education which 

 " crams " a lad with facts and leaves him unable to stand 

 alone when beyond the authority of the preceptor. To 

 the fullest extent Dr. Rothrock recognized this, and to 

 prevent such a result insisted on mental discipline, which 

 left a student with a well-grounded confidence in his own 

 powers. It is probable that Dr. Rothrock would, himself, 

 regard his relation to the forestry cause of the State as indi- 

 cating his most important life-work. 



The State Forestry Commission Report * makes a 

 volume of nearly 400 pages, and no public document 

 issued by the state in many years contains so much valuable 

 information as this. It gives, in detail, with illustrations 

 and other matter intended to throw light upon the forestry 

 question in this State, the results of the important work 

 done by Professor J. T. Rothrock and Colonel W. F. Shunk, 

 under the Act of May 23, 1893. The illustrations embrace 

 forty-seven plates, showing the conditions existing in the 

 wooded sections of the State and some effects of the forest 

 fires. There are also plates showing the naked hills and 

 rapid drainage, which causes very high and very low water. 

 Colonel Shunk devotes his attention to the water-sheds 

 of the Commonwealth, wild lands from which forest reserves 

 may be selected, and the influence of woods on the flow of 

 streams. Professor Rothrock treats the subject in all its 

 phases. A summary of the contents shows a codification 

 of all the Acts of Assembly relating to forestry, timber 

 lands, trees, etc., the original forest conditions of Pennsyl- 



* Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for 1S95. 

 Part II : Division of Forestry, comprising Report of Pennsylvania Forestry Commis- 

 sion, appointed by Act of Legislature, approved May 23, 1893. By J. T. Rothrock, 

 M. D., Botanist Member; William F. Shunk, Engineer Member. State Printer, 1896, 

 octavo, 361 pp., 47 plates, 6 maps. 



