1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



31 



population paid very little attention to 

 agricultural literature, they now seek 

 for it and our best farmers are closely 

 in touch with agricultural science. 



The time from 1890 to 1900, when 

 the great force of agricultural teaching 

 was most effective, might be aptly 

 termed "The awakening of American 

 agriculture." As yet the agricultural 

 colleges have done very little in the 

 way of teaching forestry, which is a 

 form of agriculture that they are well 

 equipped to teach. The collateral for- 

 estry subjects relating thereto, such as 

 botany, soil physics, surveying, ento- 

 mology, and economics, in which the 

 forester should have some training, 

 they are well equipped to give. They 

 also give courses in a large number of 

 subjects that help to excite interest in 

 country life and which the forester 

 would find helpful and should under- 

 stand. The one thing that they lack to 

 fit them for giving good forestry 

 courses is that which relates to the 

 cultivation and growing of trees and 

 general forest management. This 

 could be easily supplied by a professor- 

 ship in forestry in each state. It seems 

 to me, therefore, that these institutions, 

 which are in a measure national ed- 

 ucational institutions, having been 

 founded by the national government, 

 should be provided with the means and 

 required to teach this subject, the 

 proper practice of which will have 

 such a wonderful effect upon the na- 

 tional welfare. Then, too, the agricul- 

 tural experiment stations are well 

 equipped for experiments and demon- 

 strations in forestry, and are naturally 

 looked to for counsel in rural matters. 



I believe that Congress will respond 

 to an application for funds for this 

 purpose, provided that what is here 

 stated can be clearly shown. To have 

 attempted to carry out this idea twenty 

 years ago, at the time when the agri- 

 cultural colleges received their appro- 

 priation from the second Morrill bill, 

 would have been difficult of fulfill- 

 ment, for it would have been almost 

 impossible to have found men with 

 suitable training to teach these sub- 



jects. The situation today is very dif- 

 ferent. With the example set by the 

 Forest Service in the matter of correct 

 forestry ideals, and with the encour- 

 agement which it has held out to in- 

 duce young men to take hold of this 

 subject, we now have a large number 

 of young men who are well trained to 

 teach these subjects, and I feel that 

 the present Congress ought to be asked 

 to take hold of this matter and make 

 appropriations exclusively for teach- 

 ing and experimenting in forestry. If 

 national funds are appropriated for 

 this purpose they should be spent un- 

 der suitable supervision, for otherwise 

 there is such a great ignorance in re- 

 gard to the subject in a few states that 

 I fear the funds would be frittered 

 away or be spent foolishly. 



At the instance of the chief of the 

 United States Forest Service, I have 

 prepared a bill asking Congress to ap- 

 propriate $1,500 for each agricultural 

 college for teaching forestry, and 

 $2,000 a year for each experiment sta- 

 tion for experiments in forestry. The 

 supervision of the spending of this 

 fund is put in the hands of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, who has the pow- 

 er, under this bill, to withhold appro- 

 priations from any state if he thinks 

 the funds are being misused. As I 

 drew the bill it provided that the fund 

 should come from the sale of public 

 lands ; but Hon. C. R. Davis, who has 

 introduced and has charge of the bill, 

 thinks it would be best to have it come 

 out of the general treasury fund. It 

 will require about $150,000 a year to 

 carry this into effect. 



As to just what the agricultural col- 

 leges should teach in the way of for- 

 estry, I do not wish to discuss at great 

 length here ; but would say that their 

 efforts should, in my opinion, be large- 

 ly confined to the teaching of what 

 might be called farm forestry; and 

 they should in but few cases attempt 

 anything in the way of turning out 

 professional foresters, although in the 

 very nature of the case many of the 

 young men trained in the forestry 



