ARE THERE TOO MANY FOREST SCHOOLS? 



By FREDERICK A. GAYLORD 

 New York State Forester 



INGE the start of Forestry edu- 

 cation in this country, there has 

 been raised a cry of too many 

 forest schools. Some of the leading 

 foresters in the country have done all 

 in their power to keep the number of 

 forest schools down as low as possible. 

 Is this the proper sentiment? In my 

 opinion it is an extremely poor policy 

 and it is the purpose of this article to 

 try and show why it is a poor policy. 



Although I consider it one of the 

 least important arguments for increas- 

 ing the number of forest schools, let 

 us first review the field of the forester, 

 both present and future. Until 1911 

 the United States Forest Service was 

 the chief market for trained foresters. 

 By far the greater per cent of the men 

 turned out went into the national work, 

 a few, a very few, went into State 

 work, a few more went in with lumber 

 companies. Aside from these posi- 

 tions there was little chance to obtain 

 employment. 



In the future the U. S. Forest Serv- 

 ice will never again be able to take in 

 all eligible applicants and there will 

 constantly be more and more men 

 thrown in to other channels. The 

 government, however, will always 

 be an important source of employment 

 as, with the increasing intensiveness of 

 management, we will have an increase 

 in the number of foresters employed 

 per unit area. The government also 

 will be heavily drawn upon by outside 

 operators requiring foresters. 



At the present time, outside of Penn- 

 sylvania, there are less than fifty scien- 

 tifically trained foresters in State em- 

 ploy. In the near future the State of 

 New York alone will employ that many 

 and at least two-thirds of the other 

 States of the Union will employ them 

 in like proportion. It is only a ques- 

 tion of time before the timber resources 

 of New York are unlocked, and when 

 this occurs fifty foresters will be a 

 small number to look after the details 



of State work. This may seem like a 

 large figure, but after a sane considera- 

 tion, realizing that there are 12,000,000 

 acres of forest land in the State (of 

 which one-sixth is now under State 

 ownership), and a population admitting 

 of very intensive management, the 

 handling of these lands alone, to say 

 nothing of the nursery work, the edu- 

 cation of the public, surveying, etc., 

 which will have to be done, makes this 

 figure really seem very small. There 

 is a tendency at the present time to 

 regulate private cuttings. Ultimately 

 this regulation will have to come about 

 and thus bring at least 8,000,000 acres 

 under State supervision. I take New 

 York as an example of what will hap- 

 pen in practically every other State in 

 the Union. 



WITH LUMBER COMPANIES 



Until the present-day lumber com- 

 panies have employed extremely few 

 foresters. In the future this will be 

 the great field for trained men. The 

 lumbermen of the United States are 

 primarily business men and they only 

 need to be shown how they can make 

 a dollar more in order to take up the 

 idea. In the past, because of the time 

 element, danger from forest fire, mar- 

 ket conditions, etc., the lumbermen 

 have been very slow to take a serious 

 interest in forestry. The next decade 

 will see a tremendous change in this 

 direction and already some of the larg- 

 est companies operating in the east have 

 employed foresters and other com- 

 panies are rapidly showing signs of 

 awakening interest. 



When the lumber companies do come 

 to a full realization of the benefits and 

 profits derived from a scientifically 

 managed forest I firmly believe that 

 there will be a demand made on the 

 forest schools of the country propor- 

 tionately equal to that made by the 

 government in the last few years. The 

 conditions are vastly different with the 



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