VERMONT SUMMER SCHOOL OF FORESTRY 739 



dium of the "Better Farming Special" trains and the winter short courses in 

 agriculture, farm institutes, granges, etc. A forestry course in an agricultural 

 college or a state forestry dei)artnient can make use of all these agencies to 

 some extent in educating the farmers in handling woodlands. Forestry, how- 

 ever, is best taught by actual field work and so it would seem that the best 

 means of teaching it to the farmer is through short summer schools held in dif- 

 ferent sections of the state. They can be held on state forests where the work 

 in planting, thinning, and marking for reproduction cuttings, which has been 

 done, can be seen. After they are started it will be well for a progression of 

 courses to be arranged so that the men who come for a second year will find new 

 work. It is doubtful if such schools should be more than two or three weeks 

 long, for men who are busy on the farms cannot as a rule afford more than this 

 length of time. 



So far as the writer knows, Vermont is the only state to have tried a school 

 of this type. Between August 14-24, the state forester in co-operation with the 

 University of Vermont conducted a summer school of forestry and horticulture 

 on the Downer State Forest at Sharon, Vermont. 



This state forest is almost an ideal place for such a summer school. It was 

 originally the summer home of Hon. Chas. Downer, and was given to the State 

 by him for the purpose of promoting the forestry work in his section. The for- 

 est is well fitted for a school of this type, because, first, the farm house which is 

 occupied by the keeper of the forest can be used as a boarding place for the 

 students and for lecture rooms ; second, the two orchards, one bearing and the 

 other just starting, serve as fine practice grounds for the classes in horticulture; 

 third, the nursery gives opportunity for making seed beds and transplanting; 

 fourth, the vacant land not yet planned gives a chance for trying the different 

 methods of planting; fifth, the plantations of many different species on differ- 

 ent sites gives the student an opportunity to do some cleaning work and to see 

 what plantations of different species look like and will do on different sites; 

 sixth, the thinning of young maple orchards shows them what a young stand of 

 maple needs ; and the marking of the trees in the old stands shows how to cut 

 in a woodlot to get good reproduction and to protect the soil. 



The instruction in horticulture was conducted by Prof. M. B. Cummings 

 of the University of Vermont. His lectures of two forenoons were followed each 

 day by about five hours field work. Prof. G. P. Burns of the University of Ver- 

 mont, formerly of the University of Michigan, gave three lectures and conducted 

 as many field excursions in forest botany. The rest of the time was taken up 

 with true forestry work conducted by Prof. A. F. Hawes of the University of 

 Vermont, who is also State Forester, with three assistants. After these lec- 

 tures the school was divided into three squads and the remainder of the day 

 into three periods of two hours each. Thus a given squad changed work every 

 two hours. These short periods were considered advisable in order to give a 

 greater variety of work, thus preventing the student from becoming tired and 

 giving them a wide range of work in the available time, and permitting each 

 student to receive more individual attention. The field work included the fol- 

 lowing : 



