FOREST SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 545 



si)ecialize in forestry after a general academic or scientific course. The 

 program of studies is like that of the last two years of the undergraduate 

 course. 



Instruction in the field is an important characteristic of all courses in 

 the Colorado School of Forestry. The summer courses in Surveying, Forest 

 Mensuration, and Silviculture occupy twelve weeks. The summer work is 

 divided between two summers, beginning early in June and lasting into July 

 each year. In the undergraduate course, for example, students do their sum- 

 mer work at the end of freshman and sophomore, or soi)liomore and junior 

 years, as they choose. The summer courses are open to such special students 

 as have sufficient preparation. In the fall of the final year in forestry, a trip 

 of about two weeks is made to inspect some large lumbering operation, gener- 

 ally on the national forests. After the first of April of the same year, the 

 students are transferred for mapping, estimating, and preparation of working 

 plans either to the Manitou Park tract or to the national forests. Day and 

 half-day trips are made frequently throughout the year in connection with the 

 courses in Silviculture, Forest Extension, and others. 



In addition to the courses in technical forestry described above, the Colo- 

 rado School of Forestry gives a ten weeks' Ranger Course in co-operation with 

 the Forest Service. This kind of instruction is of great value in giving the 

 men who are actually engaged in the protection of the national forests a 

 general idea of the principles of forestry. It is given during the winter, when 

 the national forest rangers find field work out of question in most places on 

 account of the snow. It consists of two or three weeks of lectures at Colorado 

 Springs, followed by several weeks of field instruction at Manitou Park. As 

 the altitude at Manitou Park is only about 7,500 feet, the winters are fortu- 

 nately very open. 



The enrollment in the undergraduate course numbers thirty to thirty-five. 

 The graduate course was established only last spring (1911). The instruction 

 in the undergraduate course began in the fall of 11)00. The enrollment in the 

 last session of the Ranger Course was sixty, but as the plan of detailing the 

 men on pay, then in vogue, is now considered illegal, it is probable that 

 numbers at the next .session will be considerably smaller. 



The faculty of the Colorado School of Forestry consists of the professors 

 and instructors in Academic and Engineering courses in Colorado College and 

 two technically trained instructors in Forestry. 



Other advantages of the Colorado School of Forestry are the Fremont 

 Experiment Station of the Forest Service about seven miles from Colorado 

 Springs, the Monument Nursery on the Pike National Forest, a school forest 

 nursery and greenhouse in Colorado Springs, and a wood-testing laboratory. 

 At the Fremont Exieriment Station, silvicultural and meteorological studies 

 are being conducted by the Forest Service. In the wood-testing laboratory is 

 a 100,000-pound Riehle machine for tension, compression, shearing and trans- 

 verse tests. 



The students conduct a Forestrv Club which meets fortnightlv. It is 

 possible for Forest Service officials, located on the national forests near 

 Colorado Springs, as well as other experts, to address the club frequently 

 on various matters pertaining to forestry. The club serves to hold the interest 

 of the underclassmen in the years when they feel that mathematics and general 

 science are not as interesting as forestry and it also gives valuable hours 

 for discussion of technical questions. 



The school enjoys a wide reputation and is growing rapidly. Men who 

 have come to it, as about one-third of the students do, from east of the 

 Mississippi, feel that they are getting a true taste of their future work when 

 they are called upon to help put out fires on the nearby Pike National Forest. 



