EDITORIAL 



709 



After five years it is clear that in this region long- 

 leaf pine seedlings are almost totally exterminated by 

 the grazing of hogs. In the fenced plots the original 

 stand of longleaf pine seedlings has practically disap- 

 peared, while in the adjacent fenced plots the number 

 of seedlings has actually increased. Fire, on the other 

 hand, has had comparatively little effect on numbers, 

 but a very marked effect on growth. The difference be- 

 tween the heights of the seedlings on the burned and 

 unburned plots is now most striking and demonstrates 

 beyond question the injurious influence of fire in 

 this respect. Experience elsewhere has also indicated 

 that annual burnings by very hot fires are apt not only 

 to retard, but in time to destroy young longleaf seed- 

 lings, while it is common knowledge that loblolly and 

 shortleaf pine seedlings are very susceptible to killing 

 by fire. 



These results are corroborated by some supplementary 

 and less intensive experiments undertaken by the Urania 



Lumber Company. Hog grazing is uniformly destructive 

 and fires are detrimental. Another interesting fact brought 

 out is that fires encourage the growth of the coarse sedge 

 grass which is of little or no value for grazing, and dis- 

 courage the growth of the valuable carpet grass, clover 

 and lespedeza ; while ordinary cattle grazing, unaccom- 

 panied by fire, has the opposite effect. Fire is therefore 

 undesirable from the standpoint of grazing as well as 

 forest production. 



These facts have a direct and immediate application. 

 During the present year there is an unusually heavy crop 

 of longleaf pine seed. This should result in the estab- 

 lishment of an excellent stand of longleaf seedlings which 

 could not be secured artificially at a cost of less than 

 $5 to $10 an acre. In order to make the most of this 

 opportunity to secure the free restocking of many cut- 

 over areas, forest owners should use every possible pre- 

 caution to protect the reproduction by keeping out fires 

 and hogs. , 



CONFERENCE ON FOREST EDUCATION 



A CONFERENCE of; teachers and employers of for- 

 ^*- esters has been called to meet at New Haven, Con- 

 necticut, on December 17 and 18, to consider the entire 

 question of forest education. The scope of the meeting 

 is thus very broad. Discussion will not be limited to the 

 training of professional foresters, rangers and special- 

 ists in various lines, but will include extension work, 

 vocational education, forestry as a cultural subject in 

 high schools and colleges, and the place of research and 

 public service in the forest schools of the country. 



Such a conference should be productive of much good. 

 It is ten years since the last meeting of this kind was 

 held. In that time great changes have taken place in the 

 opportunities for foresters and in the character of the 

 men required. New lines of work have opened up and 

 old lines have been modified. Taken as a whole, the 

 problem of forest education today is quite different 

 from what it was a decade ago. It is, therefore, 

 decidedly worth while for those who are interested in 

 the problem, whether from the standpoint of the in- 

 structor or the employer, to get together for the free in- 

 terchange of ideas and the formulation of constructive 

 policies. 



American Forestry ventures to express the hope that 

 certain features of the program will receive special con- 

 sideration. In its judgment there has been a tendency 

 up to this time to devote too little attention to the train- 

 ing of the lower grades of forest officers the rangers 

 and guards. Highly trained professional men are of 

 course essential to conduct investigations and to direct 

 the administrative work. But as the practice of forestry 

 becomes more general, there will be an increasingly 

 urgent need for less highly trained men to handle the 

 bulk of the practical woods work. The time cannot be 

 far distant when this country will find itself in the posi- 



tion Europe is now in of requiring several rangers for 

 every professional forester. It is, therefore, important 

 that prompt steps should be taken to provide more am- 

 ple facilities than now exist for the training of men 

 of this type. 



There are two other important fields in forest educa- 

 tion that are still, comparatively speaking, virtually un- 

 touched. A promising start has, it is true, been made in 

 extension activities aimed at teaching the farmer and 

 other woodland owners unable to hire foresters of their 

 own better methods for the handling of their forest 

 lands. But in comparison with the need for such work 

 and with what is being done in many lines of agricul- 

 ture, the surface has as yet hardly been scratched. Here 

 is a fertile but uncultivated field awaiting development 

 by the forest schools with every prospect of yielding 

 substantial and far-reaching results. 



Still less has been accomplished in the direction of 

 teaching forestry as a cultural subject in our schools and 

 colleges. The average student who does not specialize 

 in forestry, completes his work with only the haziest 

 ideas as to the character and extent of our forest re- 

 sources and their place in our national economy. This 

 is unfortunate from several standpoints. Certainly for- 

 ests and their products are so closely interwoven in a 

 hundred ways in our daily life that every well-educated 

 man and woman should know more than is now the case 

 of the part which they play. The general diffusion of 

 this sort of knowledge regarding our forests would 

 prove one of the most effective means possible of se- 

 curing their better management. Here too, is an oppor- 

 tunity not yet taken advantage of for rendering of a 

 dual service to education and to forestry. We hope that 

 the conference at New Haven will take the leadership in 

 promoting effective action along this line. 



