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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



was no thought of timber exhaustion; Michigan white 

 pine went clear to Texas ; Sargent's "Tenth Census" fig- 

 ures were disputed ; anyone considering them seriously 

 was a "denudatic" (harmless maniac) in the parlance of 

 the practical experts. There was no use in asking a tim- 

 ber owner to engage in forestry when all his competitors 

 were exploiting on the basis of "cheap logs," at least 

 cost and with the invariable result of utter forest devasta- 

 tion. All this Fernow saw as clearly as anyone. His 

 keen sense of justice, his love for plain truth and ac- 

 curacy did not allow him to find fault with the men of 

 the industry ; but neither could he compromise the sound 

 principles of forestry. To him forestry never was and 

 never could be lumbering; his knowledge of forestry 

 was too thorough, his ideals too firmly implanted, and 

 his dislike of all bill poster work was instinctive. 

 To a smaller man the task of starting a useful Forestry 

 Division would have seemed hopeless. Not so with 

 Fernow. With a rare grasp of the situation, he started 

 work at once and along six important and useful lines 

 of action: the spread of forestry information among the 

 people ; forest legislation by States and nation ; gathering 

 reliable information regarding our trees and forests ; 

 experiments to determine the technical properties of our 

 principal species of timber; the stimulating of tree plant- 

 ing on the plains, and finally the education of college 

 students in forestry as a science and industry. With 

 unusual powers for work, almost single-handed, and 

 under the most discouraging conditions of money and 

 equipment, he started this great work. 



His first act (1887) was the introduction of the 

 "Hale" bill, providing for National Forest Reserves and 

 their administration ; this effort was followed up until it 

 succeeded in 1891. Since no provision for an admin- 

 istration of the National Forests was made in 1891, more 

 effort was required to provide for such; the "Paddock" 

 bill in the Senate in 1892, and the "McRae" bill in the 

 House in 1894, did not succeed, although the latter passed 

 both Houses and failed to become law by mere accident. 

 It was not until 1897 that a definite administration was 

 provided and thus the National Forests actually estab- 

 lished as a working enterprise. 



During the twelve years at Washington Fernow 

 kept in close touch with the forestry work in the various 

 states, and there was little of state forest legislation 

 passed during this time in which his opinion was not 

 consulted. In spite of the most meager appropriations 

 he succeeded in making a good start in forest and tim- 

 ber research ; he secured the co-operation of many promi- 

 nent men of science; and the numerous bulletins and 

 circulars, including monographs on White Pine, the 

 Southern Timber Pines; results of tests and studies in 

 Timber Physics, the first complete discussion of the 

 metal railway tie as a possible substitute; studies on 

 timber impregnation, and other subjects, all of im- 

 mediate value in wood utilization, are evidence today 

 of the painstaking work of the guiding spirit which 

 directed them and edited their results for publication. 

 An appropriation for rain-making, turned over to his 

 division, was promptly refused by Fernow. Instead, 



a scientific inquiry into existing information with dis- 

 cussions by the heads of the Weather Bureau and other 

 competent authorities was published as "Forest Influ- 

 ences," the first of its kind in this country. 



Throughout the twelve years in the Department, he 

 never ceased to write articles and addresses, and to 

 go out to deliver lectures wherever opportunity offered. 

 It was in these years that the larger part of his over 

 200 articles and addresses, over 20 circulars and over 

 30 bulletins and reports were prepared or edited. 

 The first series of twelve technical lectures to a body of 

 students was delivered at Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College in 1887; others followed at Nebraska Uni- 

 versity, Colorado, Wisconsin and California. In 1898 

 Fernow was called to Cornell to organize the first 

 forestry school in the New World. It was a state 

 school, maintained by regular appropriations by the 

 legislature, and the state provided a school forest of 

 30,000 acres in the Adirondacks. Here he inaugu- 

 rated the beginnings of professional education. The 

 school grew rapidly until in 1903 it was discontinued 

 by a veto of the governor, owing to misunderstandings 

 developed in connection, not with the school at all, but 

 with the tract in the Adirondacks. While at Cornell 

 Fernow published his "Economics of Forestry;" de- 

 livered a series of lectures at Queen's University, at 

 Kingston, Ontario, which were published in French in 

 book form as "La Foret," by the Department of Lands 

 of Quebec, and in English by the Department of Lands 

 of Ontario as well as by the University. In addition 

 he started the Forestry Quarterly, now the Journal of 

 Forestry, the only technical forestry journal in the 

 country. 



For four years (1903-1907), after leaving Cornell, Fer- 

 now worked as consulting forester; kept several timber 

 cruisers and surveyors going summer and winter; did 

 more forest consulting work than had ever been done by 

 any forester in the United States ; examined large proper- 

 ties ; carried his work into Cuba, Mexico, the South and 

 the Northeast, and demonstrated, in a way quite surpris- 

 ing to some of his acquaintances, his great versatility, and 

 his capacity in business, which had long secured for him 

 a standing among large business men, such as no for- 

 ester had ever enjoyed. During these four years 

 he continued the Quarterly; delivered two courses of 

 lectures at Yale University, and started the forest school 

 at Pennsylvania State College. In 1907 Dr. Fernow 

 accepted an invitation to Toronto University and or- 

 ganized the first forest school in the Dominion, where 

 his work was well known and where he was received by 

 many personal friends, among these Dr. Saunders, of 

 Ottawa, and Sir Henry Joly de Lotbiniere, of Quebec. 

 From this school he has now resigned, with the title of 

 Professor Emeritus, after twelve years of unquestioned 

 success. During these twelve years he did not confine his 

 work only to teaching at the college; he published his 

 well known "History of Forestry," a masterpiece of its 

 kind, covering the subject for both the Old and New 

 World, and also "Care of Trees in Lawn, Street and 



