FOREST SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 553 



addition this subject embraces tlie topics of state ownership, forest taxation 

 and forest education. 



The third or junior year of the course is mainly technical. The first terra 

 of lumbering takes up "^the methods of logging and milling in practice in 

 various parts of the country. Careful attention is given to typical operations. 

 This course is prerequisite to the lumbering trip taken during three weeks 

 of the winter vacation during which the students, with an instructor in charge, 

 make a detailed study of logging and milling in either the Lake States or the 

 South. The students are given an opportunity to observe operations both in 

 the woods and mill and a detailed report of the trip is required before credit is 

 allowed. Forest Mensuration extends throughout the third year. Both courses 

 require one afternoon's field work per week, in addition to class-room lectures. 

 The student becomes familiar with measuring instruments, determines the 

 contents of individual trees by different methods, and collects data for volume 

 and growth tables. The college forestry tract and adjacent woodlands, makes 

 possible some practical work in timber estimating on a limited scale. Forest 

 Surveying extends through the entire school year. The work includes pacing, 

 chaining, ranging; the use of the pocket compass, the surveyor's compass, the 

 hand level, the aneroid barometer, the engineer's level and transit and the plane 

 table. 



Special attention is given to approximate instruments such as the pocket 

 compass and the aneroid barometer. Careful attention is also given the taking 

 of topography and the making of topographic maps by various methods ranging 

 from approximate surveys to the more detailed stadia-transit and plane table 

 surveys. 



The ever-increasing closer utilization of products of the forest is empha- 

 sizing the importance of not neglecting this side of forestry. A lecture and 

 reference course in Forest Ttilization takes up in considerable detail the minor 

 industries depending upon the forest, such as the production of naval stores, 

 paper pulp, tannin, maple sugar, and the products of destructive distillation 

 of wood. In connection with this course is considered the various methods of 

 preserving ties, posts and poles with special emphasis on the commercial treat- 

 ing plants. A lecture and laboratory course in Wood Technology familiarizes 

 the student with the more important woods both through careful microscopic 

 examination and by less intensiv^e observations of gross appearance. The depart- 

 ment is fortunate in possessing several large collections of hand specimens com- 

 prising practically all species of wood found in the United States as well as about 

 800 specimens from the Philippine Islands, Nicaragua and Argentine Republic. 

 In addition about 100 short log specimens, with bark intact, comprising all the 

 important species, are available for the use of the students in the laboratory. 

 The course in Timber Testing is given in the engineering laboratory where the 

 students are given opi)ortunity of making the various mechanical tests of 

 compression, crossbending, shearing, torsion, etc., with some of the more 

 important commercial timbers. 



On many of the western forests the grazing problems are occupying a 

 considerable portion of the forester's time. Under i)resent economic conditions 

 grazing will continue to be closely linked to forestry work, and it is highly 

 desirable that technical foresters be prepared to handle the problems of the 

 range. A course in Range Forage Plants and Ecology is designed to give 

 prospective foresters a working knowledge of the more important grasses, 

 forage and poisonous plants of the open forest as applied to the range. A short 

 field course in Camp Technique gives the students instruction and practice 

 in making camps, packing horses for the trail, handling camp fires, etc. 



The work in the senior year is lighter in technical subjects and the student 



