CAMP LIFE AT THE YALE SUMMER 

 SCHOOL OF FORESTRY.* 



BY 



Q. R. CRAFT, 



liUREAU OF FORESTRY. 



forest students have a bet- 

 ter time and see more of the 

 sights than the people who sit on the 

 hotel verandas the greater part of the 

 time," remarked a Brooklyn young 

 lady who spends the summer each year 

 at Milford, Pa. It is invigorating cer- 

 tainly, a strenuous camp life, with daily 

 tramps through the woods ten to thirty 

 miles perhaps ; in fact, any distance 

 you like. The local press asserts that 

 Pike county, of which Milford is the 

 county seat, contains more lakes, brooks, 

 waterfalls, and other attractions of pic- 

 turesque and delightful scenery than 

 any other county in the state, and enu- 

 merates forty-two points of interest in 

 the county and the neighboring Sha- 

 wangunk hills of New Jersey. Driving 

 and automobiling are facilitated by the 

 excellence of the valley roads, which 

 are of a quality rarely found in this 

 country except in the immediate envi- 

 rons of large towns. They are mac- 

 adamized with the shale which abounds 

 in cliffs along the streams, and are 

 harder than an asphalt pavement and 

 almost as smooth. 



At Milford the murmur of waterfalls 

 and the buzz of the sawmill take the 

 place of the steam whistle. One of 

 these mills in addition prepares excel- 

 sior, and another white oak chair ma- 

 terial. Along the river road to Ding- 

 man's Ferry chestnut ties, cut from the 

 woods which cover the hills between 

 the two villages, are piled at convenient 

 landings on the bank of the Delaware. 

 These ties are seasoning to be in readi- 

 ness for floating down the river to Tren- 

 ton and Philadelphia. Outside of the 

 flat alluvial land of the river bottom the 

 whole region is a timber country, wild 



and rugged, naturally abounding in 

 fish and game, and for the most part 

 unconquerable by the plow. A better 

 place for a forest experiment station 

 and summer school would be hard to 

 find. 



ADVANTAGES OF THE LOCATION. 



The school is cheaply accessible on 

 account of summer season round-trip 

 excursion rates from all eastern cities to 

 Port Jervis, N. Y., eight miles distant. 

 With a few exceptions, the students live 

 in a camp, which has a breezy and 

 healthful location on the top of a hill 

 about a mile west of the village. The 

 tents are pitched in the edge of the 

 woods, while the new buildings with the 

 baseball grounds occupy a clearing on 

 the brow of the hill. The abundance of 

 cold spring water, and the famous Saw- 

 kill swimming pools, where one can 

 "shoot the chutes" over one cascade, 

 dive, and upon emerging be ready to go 

 over the next, help to make this cool 

 retreat one of the most attractive places 

 in the country to take a summer outing. 



The range in altitude (the cliffs which 

 bound the valley rise almost sheer, 

 sometimes for about 300 feet, broken by 

 deep gorges, through which tumble 

 foaming streams that drain the border- 

 ing plateau) and the composition and 

 water content of the soil are conditions 

 which make possible the growth of an 

 unusually large number of the trees and 

 shrubs of the eastern United States. 

 Added to these are the numerous spe- 

 cies from the West and from Europe 

 and Asia, planted on Mr. Pinchot's 

 spacious grounds. Further opportunity 

 is given for comparison of the growth, 

 appearance, and habits of related spe- 



* Illustrations by courtesy of Walter O. Filley. 



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