A FOREST SCHOOL IN THE PHILIPPINES 



By W. F. SHERFESEE 



XN JUNE, 1910, scarcely more than a year ago, was opened the first school 

 of forestry ever established in the Philippine Islands. For several years 

 the necessity of such an institution had been making itself more and 

 more strongly felt. The virgin forests of the islands cover some forty thou- 

 sand square miles one of the finest bodies of hardwood timber in the world 

 and in addition there are some twenty thousand square miles of second growth 

 forests. Much of the timber does not lie in easily accessible, compact bodies, 

 but is scattered over more than three thousand islands, most of which are 

 mountainous and some are exceedingly rugged. The number of dialects spoken 

 by the inhabitants is variously estimated at from thirty to eighty so that even 

 an accomplished linguist can hope to become acquainted with only a discour- 

 agingly small percentage. There is no common language, for English is still 

 the accomplishment of the schoolboy and the government employee, and 

 Spanish was and remains the possession principally of the illustrados, or 

 educated classes. In the early days the Filipinos were hostile to the agents 

 of the new regime, and although at present most of the archipelago is as 

 peaceful as a rural American village, the other diJBSculties suflSce to render the 

 efficient patroling and protection of the public forests by no means a simple 

 task. The right sort of Americans are hard to get; their service is expensive 

 and they are unfamiliar with the country, its languages and customs. Hence 

 they are employed in the Bureau of Forestry only in administrative and 

 scientific capacities, and the actual work in the field must be entrusted to 

 the Filipinos. 



An untrained Filipino is at least no better than an untrained American, 

 but fortunately the brighter ones are quick to learn and, after a fair amount 

 of training, develop into excellent guards and rangers. A thorough familiarity 

 with the topography, languages and customs of the country and people gives 

 them an enormous advantage over strangers, and even if Americans could be 

 secured in suflScient numbers, these advantages possessed by the Filipinos 

 would make their employment preferable. Aside from these considerations it 

 is also the fixed policy of the American administration in thhe islands to 

 employ Filipinos for all positions which they are capable of filling. The chief 

 difiSculty hitherto has been that the demand for Filipinos in the Government 

 service has far exceeded the number of applicants who have suflScient education 

 to discharge the duties incumbent upon them ; and just as in the United States 

 it was necessary to train up foresters from the beginning to carry on the work 

 of administering the timber lands of the government, so the Philippine Bureau 

 of Forestry found itself seriously handicapped in the discharge of its duties 

 because of the lack of an efficiently trained native force. 



At first the founding of a regular forest school was impossible ; suflScient 

 funds were lacking and the scanty force of Americans in the bureau was too 

 much taken up by administrative duties to permit them to do more towards 

 educating the Filipino rangers than by such instruction as could be given in 

 the field during the discharge of ordinary forest duties. Gradually, however, a 



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