9^ 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 368. 



study and laboratory practice determined 

 upon than an opposition arose, on the part 

 of interested and ignorant persons, that 

 was as well organized and as savage as any 

 attack upon Cornell University in its 

 earlier days of Sturm und Drang. The 

 management was accused of seeking to 

 make the Adirondack tracts ' as barren as 

 the top of Mount March, ' of ' methods 

 under which everything in the shape of 

 wood, right doAvn to shrubs, is being sold 

 and cut,' of infringing upon the State pi'e- 

 serve and the State Constitution. It was 

 asserted that ' the land is being stripped as 

 clean as ever it would be stripped by wood- 

 pulp men, * * * cleared of everything but 

 brush,' that on^ company is taking all the 

 soft wood and another is ' taking the rest 

 of the growth, right down to saplings ' ; 

 and numberless other equally false and 

 foolish tales reinforced the bill of com- 

 plaint. 



To this curious and unintelligent as- 

 sault it became necessary to reply, as the 

 newspapers had taken it seriously in many 

 instances and a hue and cry was being 

 raised which might very probably do much 

 injury to the new enterprise, to the best 

 interests of the State and to the reputation 

 of the university and the college. Direct- 

 or Fernow has prepared an open letter 

 regarding the matter from which we ab- 

 stract the follovsdng: 



The introduction in the United States of 

 forestry methods in managing forest prop- 

 erties has been delayed by just such mis- 

 conceptions, misstatements and misdirected 

 attacks as characterize the lucubrations 

 lately published in various newspapers re- 

 garding the doings of the College of For- 

 estry in the Adirondaeks. 



THE SITUATION. 



Cornell University was, by the State, in- 

 vited to establish a College of Forestry, 

 in which professional foresters were to be 



educated, and at the same time there was 

 given to it, as an experiment station in 

 charge of the College of Forestry, a tract 

 of land in the Adirondaeks, from which 

 the lumbermen had culled the pine and 

 spruce. On this tract it was to show how 

 such a culled hardwood forest might be 

 managed under forestry principles. 



The College of Forestry does not con- 

 trol the State forest reserve, has not even 

 a voice in its management, nor is it operat- 

 ing on any State lands, the tract at its dis- 

 posal having been deeded directly from 

 the owners to Cornell University. While 

 it would have a perfect right to cut the 

 timber down to saplings, it does not do so, 

 for good reasons. 



WHAT IS FORESTRY? 



Forestry, in simplest terms, means no 

 more nor less with reference to wood crops 

 than agriculture means with reference to 

 food crops. It is a business which is con- 

 cerned in the production of useful ma- 

 terial, the most important and most widely 

 used material, nest to food materials. It 

 is, then, entirely utilitarian. It is not con- 

 cerned, at least directly, Avith the beauty 

 of trees or vsdth the shelter for game, al- 

 though these aspects may be incidentally 

 looked after. Also incidentally and more 

 prominently must the influence of a forest 

 cover on soil and water conditions be kept 

 in view. This latter interest is directly 

 important to the forester himself, since he 

 must keep his ground in satisfactory pro- 

 ductive condition, if he expects to be suc- 

 cessful with his crop. The forester, then, 

 looks on the forest as a crop and that in- 

 volves reaping as well as planting. 



THE FORESTER A HARVESTER. 



He is a logger as well as a sower ; he uses 

 the axe as well as the spade and dibble. 

 He uses the axe even more than the plant- 

 ing tools, for under certain conditions he 



