492 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



November 



Michigan At the Michigan Ag- 



Agricultural ricultural College fif- 



teen young men have 

 entered with the expectation of com- 

 pleting the forestry course. Of these 

 seven are from Michigan, four from 

 New York, and each of the following 

 named states are represented by one 

 student: Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, 

 and California. Twenty-three men in 

 the freshman year of the five-year 

 agricultural course are receiving in- 

 struction in the elements of the sub- 

 ject. All the work in the junior 'and 

 senior years will be given this year 

 with little modification of last year's 

 programme. The two men who grad- 

 uated from this course last June have 

 been employed during the summer by 

 the State Forestry Commission. Reg- 

 ular meetings of the organization 

 known as the M. A. C. Foresters will 

 be held during the year. This organi- 

 zation is composed of the students in 

 the forestry course and others espe- 

 cially interested in the subject. The 

 meetings are held each alternate week 

 and the discussions are led by some 

 advanced student or by a special lec- 

 turer. The officers are Chief For- 

 ester, Chief or Records Account, 'For- 

 est Ranger, Executive and Prog- 

 gramme Committees. 



University 

 of Maine 



The undegraduate 

 course in forestry at 

 the University o f 

 Maine had, during the college year of 

 1903-4, an enrollment of forty-five stu- 

 dents who elected courses in forestry. 

 Of this number four made this sub- 

 ject their major course, with a view 

 of taking it up as a profession. At 

 the opening of the present college year 

 the number of students who have 

 chosen forestry as a profession has 

 been increased to ten. 



For some years the 

 In Iowa professor in charge of 



the Department of 

 Horticulture and Forestry at the Iowa 

 State College of Agriculture and Me- 

 chanics Arts has given an elementary 



course in Forestry, but this past year 

 the college decided to enlarge the work 

 by introducing several courses bear- 

 ing especially upon farm forestry. Mr. 

 H. P. Baker, of the Bureau of For- 

 estry/was elected as Assistant Profes- 

 sor in charge of Forestry and Forest 

 to the Experiment Station, and as- 

 sumed control of the work on Septem- 

 ber i. Half of his time will be given 

 to the College work and the other half 

 to studying Iowa forest* conditions for 

 the Bureau of Forestry. 



So far three courses have been es- 

 tablished, which are as follows: 



Course I. Elementary Forestry. 

 This course will be a discussion in a 

 brief way of Forestry and its objects, 

 with the main portion of the course 

 given to a study of trees and tree 

 planting in Iowa, touching on the sub- 

 ject of wood, its structure, uses, and 

 preservation. This work will be a four- 

 hour study for the first semester of the 

 sophomore year and will be eventually 

 required of all agricultural students. 

 This fall forty men are taking the 

 course. 



Course II. Silviculture. This is an 

 elective course in the Junior year for 

 those who have completed Course I. 

 Nine men have taken up this work, 

 which consists of three hours of lec- 

 tures and three hours field work dur- 

 ing the entire semester. In this course 

 will be discussed the distribution and 

 character of native forests and factors 

 of tree growth and tree planting in 

 Iowa ; the management of the farm 

 wood-lot and its protection from fire, 

 etc., with a brief discussion of forest 

 measurement, and timber and its uses. 



Course III. Forest management and 

 Policy will be an elective in the Senior 

 year for those who have taken Courses 

 I and II, and is designed for the men 

 who wish to enter Forestry as a pro- 

 fession. This course will take up sim- 

 ple questions of forest management 

 in their application to the farm grove 

 or woodlot. Under forest policy will 

 be discussed land policies, forest own- 

 ership, forest history, state and nation- 

 al forestry, and irrigation and for- 

 estry. 



