20 EDUCATION IN FORESTRY. 



Prof. S. N. Spring gives as his contribution to this report : 



A course covering four years and comprising the fundamental sciences, en- 

 gineering and forestry courses with a minimum of hours in English and eco- 

 nomics, forms too narrow a training for the development of a professional 

 forester. There is need of more economics, English, history, business courses, 

 law, and the like. Youth and undergraduate activities, desirable as they both 

 are, prevent as searching work as is found possible in a fifth year of graduate 

 work, which, properly correlated with the former, should produce men who will 

 raise the standards of forest practice and not be mere practicers of forestry. 

 There must be schools that can give adequate training to maintain the highest 

 standards and to make sure of the best development in forestry in the United 

 States. We must not have in mind the training of foresters solely under 

 present day needs but give the breadth of training that will meet future con- 

 ditions. 



P. T. Coolidge writes : 



We can not derive the best benefits from our wild lands as State or Federal 

 administrators or as private foresters except from a point of view which in- 

 cludes a much wider knowledge than that comprised under the teaching of 

 forestry as an art. 



He cites the need for economics, history, English, and a modern language 

 in his case, French. 



Our education in forestry during the last 20 years has proven weakest in the 

 approaches to mechanical engineering. * * * Whatever essentials of engi- 

 neering can be included in a forestry course will prove of greatest value. 

 * * * A subject that for many years had received insufficient attention is 

 accounting. * * * The instruction at Harvard, combining lumbering and 

 business administration, has enabled graduates to do very distinctive work. 

 The silvicultural twist in our education has unduly emphasized consideration of 

 the trees to the detriment of consideration of the forest. 



Dr. Roth says : " I believe in a five-year course for the real student who aims 

 at work that is either big or deep," and the Michigan five-year course is planned 

 to enable the student to introduce languages, economics, and other cultural sub- 

 jects. 



In considering what should constitute a well-balanced five-year course of 

 training for a professional forester, and in comparing the courses now given 

 both in four years and five years a common standard of credits is required. 

 Practice differs somewhat between colleges. The standard which has been 

 adopted in this discussion is, for lecture courses, 1 hour for a term of one-half 

 year, consisting of 16 weeks of classroom work, exclusive of examinations and 

 vacations. For laboratory work practice varies between 2 and 2 hours as the 

 equivalent of 1 hour of classroom, sometimes varying within the same college 

 and department according to the course. For field work, practice varies from 

 2 hours to 3 hours as the equivalent of 1 hour of classroom work. At the 

 University of Minnesota one credit hour is equivalent to one lecture or recita- 

 tion period requiring 2 hours of preparation, 2 hours of laboratory work requir- 

 ing 1 hour of preparation, or 3 hours of laboratory work with no preparation, 

 each week for one quarter. Three quarters give 32 weeks of work exclu- 

 sive of examinations. In the four-year course 210 credit hours are required 

 for graduation, which reduced to the minimum basis by the factor two-thirds 

 gives 140 credit hours, or 35 per term, inclusive of the summer field work at 

 Itasca Park, the omission of which lowers the term average to approximately 

 32 credits. 



At the University of California, 130 units of study are required for a four- 

 year course, which includes 6 units of summer field work, or 124 for the regular 

 terms, an average of 32 per year. 



The Yale course has teen computed by using 2 hours as the equivalent for 

 laboratory work, and 3 hours for field work. As there are 66 hours of labora- 



