MR. JAMES W. PINCHOT, 



AMONG THE FIRST TO ADVOCATE THE INTRODUCTION OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED 

 STATES AND ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE YALE FOREST SCHOOL. 



ONE of the earliest advocates of the conservative handling of the forests of the United 

 States, and a man whose services to the cause of forestry have grown with each suc- 

 ceeding year, is Mi. James W. Pinchot. His interest in the forest has been life-long as he 

 was born in northeastern Pennsylvania in the palmy days of the lumber trade in that sec- 

 tion, and much of his early life was spent in the woods. Mr. Pinchot many years ago 

 perceived the necessity of doing something to preserve our rapidly disappearing forests, 

 though, like many others since, just what should be done was not readily apparent. Dur- 

 ing a visit to France he first saw forestry practiced and was at once struck by the value and 

 necessity (of introducing similar methods in America. He advised his son, Mr. Gifford 

 Pinchot, to make forestry his profession, a suggestion that was followed with the result that 

 to-day the latter is Forester of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the 

 recognized leader of the forest movement in this country. 



Mr. Pinchot was born in 1831, went to New York in 1850 and went into business. He 

 soon became the intimate personal friend of artists like Sanford, Gifford, McEntee, Whitt- 

 redge, Kensett, Church, Eastman Johnson, Weir, and others. 



He was one of the early members of the Century Club, and one of the early subscribers 

 to the Metropolitan Museum. He was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce for 

 many years and the first treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee of the 

 American Committee for the Statute of Liberty. With other members of his family, he 

 founded the Yale Forest School in 1900 and immediately after the Yale Summer School of 

 Forestry. Later, with the officers of the school, he established the Milford Forest Experi- 

 ment Station. Both for the Summer School and for the Experiment Station he has given 

 land and buildings, and another large building is now in course of erection. 



