A FOREST SCHOOL IN THE PHTLIPPINES 521 



of investigation to the site of the school, so that the members of the faculty 

 will be enabled to devote to their work of investigation such time as is not 

 taken up by their lectures and field work. 



Two years and a vacation period are necessary to complete the forest 

 course, and only those students who have had at least two years' work in one 

 of the government high schools, or its equivalent, are accepted. Arrangements, 

 however, have been made with the College of Agriculture whereby students 

 who lack such training can spend one or two years in preparatory work before 

 they take up the exclusive study of forestry. The course at present is by no 

 means designed to turn out scientifically trained technical forestei*s; if it 

 performs the mission for which it has been established its graduates will be 

 well-equipped to carry on the actual foi-est work in the field in the capacities 

 of rangers and head rangers with the chance of promotion to positions which 

 might be roughly compared to deputy supervisorships, or even to full super- 

 visorships in the United States Service. 



The outline of the two years' course in forestry is given below: 



Junior Year. 



Mathematics (geometry and trigonometry, with special attention to sur- 

 veying). 



Physiography, soils and climatology. 



Mapping. 



History, law, and procedure of forestry. 



Forest botany and ecology. 



Vacation Work. 



Forest mensuration. 



Lumbering. 



Camp life. 



Senior Year. 



Wood Technology. 



Forest Engineering. 



Silviculture. 



Forest Management. - - 



The school is exceptionally well situated, about thirty miles from Manila, 

 near the shore of the large lake known as "Laguna de Bay," which drains 

 through the Pasig River into Manila Bay. Just at the rear of the school 

 grounds is the boundary of the Maquiling Forest Reserve, embracing the 

 forests on and around Mount Maquiling, a magnificent tropical mountain 

 rising abruptly from a plain practically at sea level to a height of some four 

 thousand feet. The entire forest reserve with an approximate area of fifteen 

 thousand acres, embracing most of the principal forest types in the Philippines, 

 is thus available for all kinds of field work necessary for a complete course in 

 forestry with the exception of lumbering. To fill this want each class is 

 required to spend one vacation period at the seat of some extensive lumbering 

 operation where, under the supervision of the instructors of the school, they 

 carry on field work analogous to that performed by students in the forest 

 schools of the United States during their annual trips to lumber camps. 



All in all the school has opened under exceptionally auspicious circum- 

 stances, and there is every reason to expect that it will speedily become recog- 

 nized as one of the best second grade forest schools in tlie Far East, comparing 

 favorably with those in Japan and the ones which the English have established 

 in India and Burma. 



