FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 



151 



Tabu I. 



From the above table it appears that twenty-two institutions in the United 

 States meet the requirements of the Conference of Forest Schools, so far as may 

 be judged from the catalogs issued. Of this number, however, only eight offer 

 work beyond the bare requirements of the undergraduate course. The fourteen 

 other institutions in the list vary between wide limits in the amount of technical 

 work required and in general educational requirements. In some of them the 

 technical courses are covered by a single instructor in forestry subjects, in others 

 the faculty is as large as in some of the institutions offering graduate work. In 

 this formative period in American forestry education, it would be unprofitable to 

 attempt to classify these institutions in reference to their work and how fully it 

 meets the requirements set forth by the Conference of Forest Schools.* 



In the early development of forestry education in the United States, the 

 demand made upon the schools was for professional foresters, trained to develop 

 methods of forest management suitable to American conditions and apply them 

 in actual practice; to develop far-reaching policies in constructive management 

 of national, State and private forests; and to educate the public to the need of 

 forest conservation. This demand for men trained to formulate the principles 

 and do the constructive work in American forestry, forced the rapidly increasing 

 number of schools to the almost impossible task of meeting this demand. In 

 recent years, however, it is becoming more and more apparent that the demand for 

 men of the highest educational attainment and thoroughly trained in all the 

 branches of technical forestry is limited and that the multiplicity of schools and 

 d^artments to supply this class of training is a waste of resources, if not 

 detrimental to the best interests of professional forestry. 



* There is a feeling at the present time on the part of many practising foresters that 

 "full technical training" as defined by the Conference of Forest Schools does not sufficiently 

 emphasize business training and forest economics. They believe that the training of profes- 

 sional foresters should be put on a wholly different basis, viz., that of the economics of 

 business and greater familiarity with existing conditions. 



