Canadian Forestry Education. 71 



tions is so thorough that it has created a demand for itself, and 

 there is every reason to beheve that the graduates of a first class 

 Forestry School would be just as eagerly sought after as the 

 graduates of our engineering and mining schools. The science 

 of forestry includes both the theoretical and the applied portions 

 of botany, ecology, physiography, dendrology, wood technology, 

 silviculture, treatment of woodlands, seeding and planting, 

 forest engineering and mapping, forest administration and law, 

 forest protection, lumbering and transportation in all their com- 

 plex relations, and forest hydrography. Whether such an 

 extensive course of studies should be attempted in a four years' 

 under-graduate course as it was at Cornell, and as both Queen's 

 and Toronto Universities have proposed doing; or whether it 

 should be made a post-graduate course for men who are univer- 

 sity graduates in the natural sciences, as at Yale and Michigan 

 Universities, will depend upon the degree of specialization we 

 w^sh our foresters to attain. 



A forester is not a mere botanist let loose to air his facts 

 at the expense of others; neither is he a fire ranger, a lumber- 

 man, a sportsman, an arboriculturist, a dendrologist, a silvi- 

 culturist, or any other ist. He must clearly understand all these 

 phases of the question, and their relation to one another. He is 

 constantly being called upon to deal with universal and economic 

 questions of tremendous magnitude and importance. His profes- 

 sion touches Hfe at many points, and he must of necessity be 

 thoroughly well trained for his life work if he is to be of the highest 

 service to the state. The state cannot afford to place such 

 tremendously important questions as the Science of Forestry has 

 constantly to deal with in the hands of a corps of inefficiently 

 trained men. President Roosevelt says "The forestry problem is 

 in many ways the most vital internal problem in the United 

 States;'' and Ex-President Cleveland says "Through the teachings 

 of intelligent forestry it has been made plain that in our Western 

 localities ruinous floods and exhausting droughts can be largely 

 prevented, and productive moisture in useful degree at needed 

 periods secured bv a reasonable and discriminating preservation 

 of our forest areas. The advocates of irrigation have been led 

 to realize that it is useless to provide for the storage of water 

 unless the sources of its supply (the forests) are protected ; and 

 all those who, in a disinterested way, have examined these 

 questions concede that tree growth and natural soil on our 

 watersheds are more valuable to the masses of our people than 

 the foot-prints of sheep or cattle." From whatever point of 

 view we approach the subject we cannot get away from the fact 

 that the forestry question is one of national importance. The 

 forester must possess a thorough knowledge of the life history of 

 each kind of tree to be grown ; the influences effecting its welfare ; 

 the methods employed'in its management; the technical proper- 



