740 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Making seedbeds, transplanting seedlings, actual planting by the different 

 methods, cleaning in an old plantation, thinning a young maple orchard, 

 marking for a cutting in a mature hardwood stand, the use of volume tables 

 in estimating the timber of a woodlot, and the use of and comparison of the 

 different log rules. 



A fair amount of recreation was mingled with the work. The students 

 lived in tents and in the center of the camp ground was a large open fire 

 about which the students sat in the evening and sang songs, roasted corn and 

 enjoyed themselves in other ways. There were eighteen students present 

 from every section of the state, from Richford on the Canadian border, to 

 Brattleboro, near the Massachusetts boundary. They were also of all ages, 

 from sixteen to over fifty, and represented a wide range of occupations; 

 farmers, gardeners, teachers, post-office employees and students. 



The big day of the whole school was Sharon Day, when everyone from 

 the surrounding country was invited to a picnic dinner followed by a few 

 short talks. During the forenoon, while the people were arriving, Prof. Cum- 

 mings conducted a demonstration of orchard pruning. After the addresses 

 in the afternoon, an excursion was conducted over the nursery and planta- 

 tions. Among the speakers of the afternoon were Dean J. L. Hills, of the 

 State Agricultural College; Prof. M. B. Cummings; Hon. O. L. Martin, Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture; Hon, Clement Smith, Master of the State Grange; 

 Mr. Charles Green, of White River, who is as interested in forestry as any 

 man in the state ; and Prof. Hawes. This gathering was well attended. 



At the close of the school the students were inquiring about the prospect 

 of another term next year and seemed to feel that the money they had invested 

 (the only cost to them was for travel and board) in this term had been well 

 spent. The school was an experiment on the part of the State forester, but 

 was so successful that it will, doubtless, be an annual event. 



The University of Vermont is also carrying out the other two lines of 

 forestry education ; forestry instruction for agricultural students and pre- 

 paring students for the technical forest schools. This fall there are ten 

 students taking this forestry course; nine of these are agricultural 

 students who wish such forestry work as will fit them for managing the timber- 

 land on the farms they expect to handle. The work will consist of woods sur- 

 veying, type mapping, thinnings, cutting to obtain reproduction, planting and 

 nursery work, determination of stumpage values under given market condi- 

 tions, and the use of yield volume, and growth tables. One student is pre- 

 paring for one of the graduate technical schools and is taking such courses 

 as will fit him for the work there, and such forestry work as will make his 

 work there more valuable. 



Sixty acres of forest land were burned over in one day, on October 30th, 

 1)1/ a fire that is supposed to have been started by campers near the old Rip Van 

 Winkle House near Catskill, N. Y. 



