FERNOW HALL 



By Ralph S. Hosmer 



Professor of Forestry, Cornell University 



TO everyone interested in forestry in America the 

 honor recently conferred on Dr. Bernhard E. Fer- 

 now by the trustees of Cornell University will seem a 

 fitting recognition of real and substantial accomplish- 

 ment. 



On the afternoon of October 5, 1922, there was un- 

 veiled at Ithaca, New York, over the entrance of the 

 Forestry Building on the Cornell University campus, 

 a tablet bearing the words "FERNOW HALL." The 

 naming in Dr. Femow's honor of the building where 

 is taught the subject that he organized for instruction 

 in this country was authorized by the trustees of Cornell 

 University on June 20, 1922. The unveiling of the tab- 

 let on October 5 was marked by addresses by Dr. Liv- 

 ingston Farrand, president of Cornell University, Dean 

 A. R. Mann, of the New York State College of Agricul- 

 ture, and Professor Ralph S. Hosmer, head of the De- 

 partment of Forestry; 



By an interesting coincidence two of Dr. Fernow's 

 sons are now connected with Cornell, one as an instruc- 

 tor in the College of Engineering, Mr. B. E. Femow, 

 Jr. ; the other as a graduate student in Plant Pathology. 



CORNELL HONORS DISTINGUISHED FORESTER 



Entrance to the Forestry Building at Cornell University dedi- 

 cated to Dr. B. E. Femow. 



To the latter, Mr. Karl H. Fernow, fell the pleasant duty 

 of pulling the cord that raised the flag covering the 

 tablet bearing his father's name. 



The building hereafter to be called FERNOW HALL 

 was erected through a special appropriation made by 

 the legislature of the State of New York in 1911. It 

 was dedicated in May, 1914, and since then has been the 

 home of the Department of Forestry of the New York 

 State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. 



It seems peculiarly appropriate that Cornell Univer- 

 sity should thus honor Dr. Fernow, for it was at this 

 institution that there was established under his direction, 

 in 1898, the first school of forestry on the American 

 continent, the old New York State College of Forestry 

 at Cornell University. Although suspended in 1903 as 

 the result of an unfortunate controversy that arose in 

 connection with the college forest in the Adirondacks, 

 the old New York State College of Forestry has a 

 notable record. There was never the least criticism of 

 the instruction given at the college. On the contrary, 

 the best evidence of the value of the work that Dr. Fer- 

 now did in organizing a professional forestry curricu- 

 lum is to be found in the fact that the general program 

 of study that he established at Cornell has become the 

 basis for the standardized curriculum of instruction in 

 forestry that is now followed by all the leading forest 

 schools in the United States. 



In this connection it may be interesting to note that 

 of the seventeen men who were graduated from the old 

 New York State College of Forestry and received from 

 Cornell University the degree of Forest Engineer, the 

 fourteen now living are all actively engaged in the 

 practice of forestry as a profession. A number of these 

 men bear names that are well known both in the United 

 States and Canada. 



While at Cornell Dr. Fernow made another contribu- 

 tion to forestry in America that is of far-reaching im- 

 portance, the founding of a technical forestry journal, 

 the "Forestry Quarterly." In 191 7 this magazine was 

 merged with the Proceedings of the Society of American 

 Foresters and given the name "Journal of Forestry." 

 Dr. Fernow still remains its editor-in-chief. One of Dr. 

 Fernow's most important books, "The Economics of 

 Forestry," also appeared during the years he was teach- 

 ing at Cornell. It is one of the most valuable books in 

 American forestry literature and is as vital today as 

 when it came from the press twenty years ago. Other 

 of Dr. Fernow's books, outside of numerous government 

 publications, are his History of Forestry, 1907, (3rd 

 revised edition, 1913), and his Care of Trees, 1910. 



But the achievements of Dr. Fernow do not rest alone 

 on what he accomplished while at Cornell. His con- 



