No. 4. J FORESTRY IX MASSACHUSETTS. 59 



1 24 of the Rcvi.sed Laws makes it mandatory that every such 

 society shall animally otlcr premiums and encouragement for 

 the raising and preservation of oak and other forest trees 

 ada})ted for an adequate supply of ship and other timber, — 

 a most excellent provision. If it has not borne fruit, what 

 is the reason ? This is Avorth while investigating. 



There is now a s}iecial society, the Massachusetts Forestry 

 Association, which charges itself with the development of 

 interest in forestry matters. I have not come before you to 

 praise your institutions, but to help improve them by finding 

 fault and by suggestion. Yet I must praise at least one piece 

 of work of your Forestry Association. In printing a small 

 booklet, containing the laws of Massachusetts relating to 

 trees and woodlands, it did not only do me a great service, 

 enabling me to appear knowingly before you, but the educa- 

 tional value of just this little piece of work can hardly be 

 overestimated, provided the booklet is widely distributed. 

 A widespread, easilj^ obtainable knoAvledge of the law is the 

 first requisite to its employment. Half the laws become 

 innocuous because the}"^ are forgotten, and nobody is specially 

 interested in carrying them out. 



There has been much talk of introducing the subject of 

 forestry into the public schools. If therebj^ is meant that 

 the teachers should be intelligent on the subject, and should 

 incidentally, occasionally or at a set occasion, like Arbor 

 Day, impart such intelligence to their pupils, and arouse in 

 them the interest which they should have in forestry, as well 

 as in agriculture, mining and all other pursuits of man, and 

 perhaps in addition rouse their moral sense against waste 

 by fii'e or otherwise, — if that is all that is intended, the 

 teachers should be encouraged, and by proper literature 

 enabled to do so. But I am utterly opposed to the intro- 

 duction of the subject as a regular course, for the simple 

 reason that there is no time for such extension of the com- 

 mon school curriculum, wdiich is already overfull ; and there 

 is no necessity if the State does its duty otherwise. 



When it comes to the professional teaching of the subject, 

 the matter is different. If the State sup})orts agricultural 

 colleges, there is now no reason why it should not also sup- 



