CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION IN 



FORESTRY 



A CONFERENCE of representa- 

 tives of the various universities 

 and colleges in which forestry is 

 taught was held in Washington on 

 December 30 and 31, 1909, to con- 

 sider the proper organization of 

 the teaching of forestry in the 

 United States. In the opinion of those 

 who attended this conference, results of 

 the first importance are likely to flow 

 from it. President Drinker, of Lehigh 

 University, declared at the last session 

 that, with an experience of forty years 

 in attending similar conferences of en- 

 gineers and others engaged in technical 

 work, he regarded this as one of the 

 most remarkable meetings in which he 

 had ever taken part. He ascribed to 

 Mr. Gifford Pinchot, at whose initiative 

 the conference was first called together, 

 its peculiar character. This lay in the 

 fact that the men in whose hands is the 

 molding of educational work in forestry 

 in this country met together with a 

 common viewpoint and purpose, looking 

 to the serving of the public interest as 

 the fundamental aim of their profession. 

 The first idea of the conference was 

 explained by Mr. Pinchot to have been 

 suggested to him by Prof. Filibert Roth, 

 of the University of Michigan. The 

 call for it was sent out in the early 

 summer, by a letter of invitation to each 

 of some twenty-five institutions. The 

 list included all forest schools and uni- 

 versities and colleges in this country in 

 whose curriculum forestry has any im- 

 portant place. The call set forth that 

 such a conference might be made of 

 very great value to the general progress 

 of forestry in the United States, as well 

 as to the institutions which teach for- 

 estry and to the Forest Service, which 

 as the most important employer of for- 

 esters is vitally interested in their best 

 professional training. The things to be 

 104 



considered by the conference were de- 

 fined in the call as "the objects and the 

 methods of forest instruction, the or- 

 ganization and standards of educational 

 work in the field of forestry, the co- 

 ordination of the work of different in- 

 stitutions, and the needs of the Forest 

 Service and other employers of forest 

 school graduates." 



Fifteen of the institutions invited to 

 attend the conference sent representa- 

 tives. The list of delegates was as 

 follows : 



Prof. Frederick A. Goetze, Columbia Uni- 

 versity; Prof. Carlton C. Curtis, Columbia 

 University; Prof. R. T. Fisher, Harvard Uni- 

 versity; Prof. C. A. Scott, Iowa State Col- 

 lege; President Henry S. Drinker, Lehigh 

 University; Prof. Robert W. Hall, Lehigh 

 University; Prof. F. W. Besley, Maryland 

 Agricultural College; Prof. J. Fred Baker, 

 Michigan Agricultural College ; Prof. J. A. 

 Ferguson, Pennsylvania State College; Prof. 

 Gordon T. Tower, University of Maine; 

 Prof. Filibert Roth, University of Michigan ; 

 Prof. Walter Mulford, University of Michi- 

 gan; Prof. C. L. Hill, University of Michi- 

 gan; Prof. Samuel B. Green, University of 

 Minnesota ; Prof. Frank J. Phillips, Univer- 

 sity of- Nebraska; Prof. R. B. Miller, Uni- 

 versity of New Brunswick; Prof. Bernard E. 

 Fernow, University of Toronto ; Prof. Frank 

 G. Miller, University of Washington ; Prof. 

 Henry S. Graves, Yale University, and 

 Messrs. Carter, Cox, Ellis, Hall, Kellogg, 

 Riley, Smith, and Zon, U. S. Forest Service. 



The meetings were held at Mr. Pin- 

 chot's house, and were opened by an ad- 

 dress of welcome from Hon. James 

 Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. The 

 first two papers presented, by Prof. 

 Henry S. Graves, of Yale University, 

 and Prof. Roth, of the University of 

 Michigan, called forth a discussion 

 which extended throughout the entire 

 first day and evening of the conference. 

 Professor Graves's paper had for its 

 subject, "The Field of Work and 

 Necessary Equipment of the Profes- 



