518 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



certain number of Filipinos, educated either in the United States or by close 

 contact with American foresters in the Philippines for several years, had 

 developed sufficiently to permit them to be placed in positions of responsibility 

 hitherto occupied only by Americans. In addition the force of American 

 foresters in the bureau was somewhat enlarged. 



These conditions, then, permitted Major George P. Ahern, the Director of 

 Forestry, to carry out his long-cherished scheme of founding a forest school 

 for the training of head rangers and possibly later on of technical foresters. 

 In the session of the Second Philippine Assembly held early in the spring of 

 1910, he secured the passage of a bill which permitted him to establish a 

 Forest School in connection with the College of Agriculture of the University 

 of the Philippines and to appoint twenty pensionados or holders of government 

 scholarships, for the two years' course at the school. Buildings were erected 

 and foresters were detailed from the bureau to give the technical courses in 

 forestry, the auxiliary courses being supplied by the faculty of the College of 

 Agriculture. This year the number of new pensionados has been almost 

 doubled, one such position being made available from each province under 

 the jurisdiction of the Philippine Assembly and from certain special provinces 

 which are still governed directly by the Philippine Commission. These scholar- 

 ships now pay the students twenty-five pesos per month in cash, and in addi- 

 tion they are provided with free living quarters and with most of the books 

 and other supplies needed in their courses. A commodious mess hall has also 

 been built by the bureau and is fully equipped with cooking utensils, dishes, 

 etc. Here the students now run their own mess and secure excellent meals for 

 about four dollars per month. They employ their own cook and are establish- 

 ing a kitchen garden for growing their own vegetables. 



The pensionados' traveling expenses to and from the school are refunded 

 by the Bureau of Forestry and upon the successful completion of the course 

 each such student is guaranteed a position in the bureau at a good salary without 

 the necessity of taking a civil service examination. On accepting the scholar- 

 ships, they, in return, bind themselves to enter the employ of the bureau on 

 the completion of the work for as long a period as they shall have enjoyed the 

 privileges of the scholarships. There are also several private students taking 

 the course in forestry. No special inducements are made them, but they are 

 furnished free quarters if such are available. 



The new school year opened in June of the present year and in order to- 

 insure an adequate faculty the entire division of investigation of the Bureau 

 of Forestry has been transferred to Los Baiios in the province of La Laguna, 

 where the forest school is situated. Residences and an office building have been 

 constructed for the members of the division and the grounds around the 

 buildings have been jjarked. Plans are now being made for the establishment 

 of a large central nursery near the school which will be used not only for 

 growing tree seedlings for extensive work in reforestation, but which will 

 afford the students an opportunity to secure practice in nursery work and 

 transplanting. 



The faculty of the technical course in forestry is made up as follows : 



Major George P. Ahern, professor of forestry; 



Dr. H. N. Whitford, associate professor of forest botany; 



H. M. Curran, associate professor of forest management; 



Dr. F. W. Foxworthy, assistant professor of wood technology; 



D. M. Matthews, instructor in forestry and secretary of the Forest School ; 



M. J. Oteyza, assistant in field methods. 



In addition special lecturers will be detailed from time to time from the 

 Bureau of Forestry for certain courses. It is apparent that the faculty is 

 exceedingly strong. It was only made possible by transferring the division 



