REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY AS A PART 

 OF EXTENSION COURSES IN COLLEGES AND UNIVER- 

 SITIES. 



EXTENSION WORK IN FORESTRY. 



Object. To supplement the more formal instruction of the classroom and 

 reach those who can not afford the time or money to attend regular courses. 



The need. In this way the salient points in forestry can be set before the 

 small woodlot owner, the wood user, and the person whose interest has been 

 stimulated to the point where he wishes to acquire a systematic view of the 

 fields which are susceptible of presentation by extension methods. To make 

 this more concrete there would be included the woodland owner whose hold- 

 ings were too limited to justify the employment of an expert and who must, 

 therefore, he his own forester ; the manufacturer of wood in some form who 

 wished accurate information about his raw material; and the general reader 

 who wished to systematize his information. 



Methods. Extension work may be accomplished by (1) reading courses, (2) 

 talks; (3) demonstrations; (4) permanent projects. 



Reading courses can be developed in the following subjects : 



1. General forestry. 



2. Dendrology (including wood uses and identification). 



3. Estimating and scaling. 



4. Woodlot management (including protection, utilization, silviculture, 



and regulation). 



5. Lumber grading. 



6. Sawmill practice. 



7. Kiln drying. 



8. Wood preservation. 



9. Economic aspects of the lumber industry. 



The aim should be to cover well a few weL-chosen phases of the subject. 

 The " job sheet " method, as employed in the intensive training courses of the 

 Army, may well serve as a model. The textbook should be carefully selected 

 and may in some cases have to be specially prepared. Written reports should 

 always be required. These should be carefully -reviewed, suggestions made as 

 to wrong or doubtful points and graded. 



Talks or lectures should be concise and forceful appeals for action along 

 definite lines. To be effective they must first clear the ground of obstacles, real 

 and imagined, and then bring to bear upon the will of the audience such a 

 flood of stimuli that their inherent inertia will be overcome. Merely to convey 

 information is not enough. The audience must be moved to use the knowledge 

 presented. 



Talks may well be illustrated where the illustrations reenforce the argument 

 Merely showing pretty pictures is a waste of time. 



Demonstrations are the natural result of the failure of talks to produce 

 large results. Showing a man how to do a thing is much more effective 

 than telling him how to do it. Hence, talks should, if possible, always be 

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