Forestry in Schools 



All teachers have been reminded many times of that rather 

 vague statement of Herbert Spencer that "Education is prep- 

 aration for complete living." Often we misinterpret it by 

 telling our pupils that we must go to school in order to 

 "prepare for life". We make the school appear not as a very 

 necessary part of life, but as a sort of a "purgatory which 

 precedes the blessed state". Let us get on solid ground and 

 teach that school work is as much the business of life as sell- 

 ing goods or farming, and that education is acquainting our- 

 selves with the field of our labors. We must have that famil- 

 iarity with our environment which will enable us to serve 

 our fellow men ; to meet each situation which arises with con- 

 fidence ; and to live happily and in content. 



Now nature is everywhere our environment, and trees 

 form a large and influential part of nature. I am not pre- 

 paring to say by all this introduction that forestry is to be 

 a separate branch in the public school. It seeks not to sup- 

 plant any other, but to supplement almost all others. Geog- 

 raphy, history, botany, nature-study and agriculture are all 

 enriched by references to their forest relations. Whether we 

 like it or not, forestry is taking a place in general education 

 from the country schools to the universities. It is important 

 that the teaching of it be rightly guided and properly cor- 

 related with educational work generally. 



In this issue of School Agriculture, we present some ele- 

 mentary principles and practical exercises in forestry to be 

 correlated with the work in nature study and elementary agri- 

 culture. 



LESSON XIV. 



TR STUDIES. 



Characteristics of Trees. Trees are the most prominent 

 and one of the most important and most interesting features 

 in the living vegetable world. It is their great height, their 

 long life and their form, which distinguishes the trees from 

 other plants. The single stem or trunk, which develops more 

 strongly than the branches, into which it divides, and which 

 in their aggregate make up the crown, is the tree's most char- 



