EDUCATION IX KOKKSTRY. 41 



existence. To a certain extent this will undoubtedly be necessary. Most of 

 the courses in pure science, for the present at least, will probably have to be 

 taken in substantially their present form, although it would be highly desirable 

 and in some cases may prove possible to give them with special reference to 

 the student's future work. In the applied sciences this should prove still more 

 feasible and the bulk of the work should have some direct bearing on the field 

 of forest products. Thus in the study of engineering materials special atten- 

 tion should be paid to wood rather than to steel or concrete; in machine de- 

 sign to sawmill and woodworking machinery ; in forest mensuration to the 

 measurement of logs, cord wood, and standing trees rather than to stem analysis 

 and the preparation of yield tables, etc. In some cases new courses will un- 

 doubtedly have to be introduced. An example of this is the so-called course in 

 the " Practice of forestry," the aim of which is to give the engineer or chemist 

 in forest products a bird's-eye view of the more essential features of silvicul- 

 ture, forest management, forest valuation, and forest regulation. 



As education in the field of forest products develops and becomes more 

 firmly established, the natural evolution will be toward modifications looking 

 to the inclusion of essentials and the elimination of nonessentials. Short cuts 

 will undoubtedly be devised, new courses will be added or substituted for old 

 ones, and the weak spots in existing courses will be strengthened. The under- 

 lying principle should be to have each subject taught, not as an end in itself, 

 but as an integral part of a homogeneous course aimed to give the student the 

 best possible equipment in the time available for a specific field of work. To 

 do this effectively the instructor should have not only a thorough technical 

 knowledge of the fundamental and applied sciences pertaining to his particular 

 subject, but at the same time the necessary point of view. Such men are at 

 present comparatively rare, and it may be some time before any considerable 

 number of thoroughly competent instructors will be available. 



in this connection the committee would like to emphasize the desirability 

 <>f enlisting the student's interest and giving him the right point of view from 

 the very beginning of this course. To a considerable extent this can be done 

 by extra ourriculuni activities, such as the organization of student clubs and 

 the giving of special lectures by foresters, engineers, chemists, business men, 

 and others of prominence and reputation in their respective fields. Such 

 activities can well be made to play an important and helpful part in the 

 student's training. 



These suggestions constitute the broad outlines of the scope and character 

 of special courses for the training of technologists in the field of forest prod- 

 ucts. Who should take the leadership in securing their introduction? In the 

 judgment of the committee this is a duty which devolves primarily upon % the 

 foresters and forest schools of the country. Careful analysis of the proposed 

 courses will show that they contain many subjects quite foreign to the 

 curricula of the engineering schools, such as botany, plant physiology, tree 

 diseases and injuries, and forest mensuration. Such subjects as silvics, 

 wood technology, engineering mechanics, and practice of forestry are equally 

 foreign to the colleges of science. On the other hand, hardly a subject is 

 included which is not already required or might logically be required by some 

 forest school. Practically all of the forest schools now give at least elementary 

 instruction in such subjects as timber, tests, kiln drying, wood distillation, and 

 wood preservation. A good deal of engineering and chemistry is already re- 

 quired by those offering advanced work in these lines and in logging engineer- 

 ing. To require such additional instruction in these fields as might be mw- 

 sary would be but a step, and would be wholly in line with the development 

 of forest education. 



