Extension Service Circular 33 February, 1927 



THE PRACTICE OF FORESTRY UPON PRIVATE LANDS AS 

 INFLUENCED BY FORESTRY EXTENSION* 



G. H. COLLINGWOOD, Extension Forester 

 Office of Cooperative Extension Work 



The word extension may be defined as extending informa- 

 tion and instruction beyond the walls of a college. According- 

 ly j the more specific term forestry extension includes the teach- 

 ing of forestry to people who are not in college. 



I trust that you will pardon me if I confine my discus- 

 sion to those phases of forestry extension which are being con- 

 ducted by the extension services of the several agricultural 

 colleges in the country. Not that the agricultural colleges 

 have any monopoly of extension teaching - nor for that matter is 

 it confined to colleges - witness the educational work which the 

 State foresters in many parts of the country are doing. 



In the words of a recent report from the Department of 

 Agriculture, this system of agricultural extension "contemplates 

 placing men and women demonstration agents in every agricultural 

 county, to make available to the farmer on his farm and the farm 

 woman in her home improved methods in farming and home making 

 which have been established by research and in a form which they 

 can use." To the extent that forestry has a place in farm man- 

 agement and home making it has a definite place in this agricul- 

 tural extension program. 



Certain agricultural colleges were doing a little forestry 

 extension work even before 1914 when the Smith-Lever law set up 

 a national system of agricultural extension. Between 1914 and 

 1925 when the Clarke-McNary law became effective 14 States de- 

 veloped definite farm forestry projects. Since then IS other 

 States have included forestry in their agricultural extension 

 program, and the $50,000 made available by the Clarke-McNary law 

 has been added to by the States until it has grown to over $130,000. 

 To say that this makes possible the employment of over 30 full- 

 time extension foresters is to scarcely touch upon the potenti- 

 alities of this organization. As a matter of fact, channels have 

 been opened whereby these extension foresters may get their mes- 

 sage to more than 2,200 county agricultural agents, who in turn 

 are trying to reach the hundreds of thousands of farmers within 

 their counties. 



Some one has compared the extension foresters to a group 

 of generals without an army. If there are any such individuals 

 it is because they do not understand the organization of which 

 they are a part. For every county agent is a potential forestry 



''Presented before the 26th annual meeting of the Society of American 

 Foresters, Philadelphia, Pa., December 30, 192S. 



i I oo 



