496 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 19S„ 



take the experiment; a bill was drafted 

 and introduced into the Legislature early in 

 February, was passed and received the 

 Governor's signature in April, and on the 

 16th of that month, by action of the Board 

 of Trustees, the University accepted the 

 responsibility and established the college 

 by election of the writer as its director. 



Although a State institution, and as such 

 dependent upon appropriations provided by 

 the Legislature, the College, while having 

 its own separate faculty organization, is 

 organically connected with the University 

 and has the benefit of the entire apparatus 

 of the same with the ISO or more professors 

 and instructors, at least 30 of whom will 

 be called upon to furnish instruction to 

 students of the College in fundamental and 

 supplementary sciences. 



In thus connecting the forestry school 

 with a fully equipped university the most 

 advanced German ideas in forestry educa- 

 tion are realized. "While in that country, 

 in which forestry is most advanced, only 

 three of the nine higher schools of forestry 

 are located at universities, it has become 

 more and more apparent to the educators, 

 even to the directors of the separate institu- 

 tions, that the advantages derived from the 

 broader education and fuller equipments of 

 universities far outweigh the advantages of 

 the separate academy, which were mainly 

 seen in their location near the woods and 

 demonstration areas. It is now recognized 

 that with modern methods of communica- 

 tion the woods can be more readily reached 

 from a railroad center ; that at any rate 

 only a limited amount of practical instruc- 

 tion is possible at the school, wherever 

 situated, the practice coming preferably 

 after a thorough theoretical instruction ; 

 and, finally, that the local isolation of the 

 academy is a detriment both to professors 

 and students by its mental isolation. At 

 the university the courses in fundamental 

 and supplementary sciences, which include 



mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, 

 botany, zoology, political economy, engi- 

 neering, law, can naturally be more thor- 

 oughly provided. 



For the present there are three teachers 

 of forestry provided at the new college, 

 namely, the director and two instructors, 

 with the possibility of using the manager 

 of the demonstration or college forest to as- 

 sist, although the distance of the latter 

 would make such participation of the 

 manager in educational lines possible only 

 during summer courses and on excursions 

 to the school forest. 



This teaching force is equal to the lowest 

 requirements and can be satisfactory only 

 in the beginning, while the college is in its 

 infancy. The best German institutions 

 have four and five full professors, and only 

 the less favored are satisfied with two full 

 professors of forestry, who are then not 

 burdened with administrative functions. 



The University of Munich has six profes- 

 sors of forestry, of whom two, however, are 

 teachers of dendrology and soil physics, 

 which are not exactly forestry branches, 

 but form fundamentals to be taught in the 

 departments of botany and geology. 



A satisfactory organization which would 

 do justice both to the teaching and the in- 

 vestigation work, such as is here even more 

 needed than abroad, would i-equire three 

 full professors with at least two instructors 

 or assistants corresponding to the three 

 groups into which forestry subjects can be 

 divided according to their bases, namely : 

 those which are mainly based upon natural 

 sciences and are concerned with forest crop 

 production — silviculture, forest protection, 

 timber physics; those which are mainly 

 based upon mathematics and engineering 

 knowledge and are concerned with the 

 practical management of a forest property 

 — forest exploitation, forest mensuration 

 and forest regulation ; those which are 

 mainly of a philosophical character, requir- 



