Conservative *
FORESTRY AS A PROFESSION.
"What are you fitting for ? " is a
question often asked the young college
student by older men , and in many
cases it is found to be a poser if a ser
ious and well-considered answer is to be
given. Some young men early deter
mine to follow this or that professional
calling because it is hereditary , so to
speak , in the family. Others have
strong inclinations toward some par
ticular work , some science , perhaps , for
which a taste was formed through
casual holiday reading or rambling.
But there are hosts of young men who
begin their college work with'out a def
inite purpose. This is not to their dis
credit. One of their reasons for going
to college is that it may help them to
discover their particular bent and capa
city. Professional callings are plentiful
nowadays and so are the aspirants for
honors therein. Young men hear a
great deal about such pursuits all their
lives and very naturally consider them
most when thinking of their own fu
tures. Medicine , surgery , architecture ,
art , literature , engineering in its many
branches , law , music , pedagogy , all
these already well-supplied callings find
confident new followers year after year.
It has been said that these professions
"overcrowded" is
are well-supplied ,
the word most often used , and yet it is
certainly true that there is always room
for a hard worker or a genius in any
of these fields.
There is another professional field ,
however , which is now opening to the
young men of this country , and as it is
new and as yet little practicedour boys
hear of it seldom or never , and con
sequently it is not weighed in the bal
ance with other possibilities. It is
hoped that this article may serve to call
attention to this new opportunity for
vigorous young Americans. First , how
ever , let the man who is looking for
"a snap" be warned that here is no
place for him.
The new opening is in forestry , or for
est engineering as it is coming to be
called , and in a country with such vast
forest tracts as ours , tracts fitted for
nothing but forest growth and ad
mirably adapted to that , with vast capi
tal and labor depending on the timber
supply for employment , it is evident
that there is a field for the forest en
gineer , the man who knows how to
keep up the annual supply forever.
Forestry as a profession is not new to
the world , for it lias been practiced
with profit by generations of the more
thrifty European races. It is new to
this country because the time is only
just ripe for its employment. It has be
come essential to the continued pros
perity of our lumber industry in its
producing and manufacturing branches.
With an increasing population and gen
eral prosperity local consumption of
timber has multiplied rapidly. The
demand from abroad is also continuous
and growing. To meet it we have a
very certain and fixed stock of growing
timber , and much of the best timber
land is abandoned to absolute desert
waste , after being clean-cut , as the
phrase is. Forestry , the applied science
of growing trees for profit , would never
sanction such shiftless , short-sighted ,
yea , suicidal methods. It would keep
in growing timber , and that of the
kinds best suited to the particular soil
and market , every acre of land which
was not more valuable for agriculture ,
building or some other form of busi
ness enterprise.
In brief , it may be said that the
wealth produced from our American
forests each year exceeds in value the
total product of all the gold , silver , cop
per , iron , lead and coal mines , and the
value of this crop surpasses that of the
wheat and cotton fields combined. The
statistics of our national trade bear out
these statements. In similarity abbre
viated form it can be said that this
country is now and has been for several
years past using fully fifty per cent more
wood per annum for all purposes than
the forests can produce under natural
conditions. What those forests can do
when skillfully assisted by future gen
erations of forest engineers is for those
men to prove. Surely there will not be
the wanton waste which goes on today
( and that leakage stopped con properly
be charged up to the credit of increased
production ) , and the trees will grow
faster for being given the proper con
ditions without the necessity of their
fighting for them single-handed.
All this has been realized by the Fed
eral Government , and some thirty mil
lion acres have already been set aside by
presidential proclamation as permanent
timber reservations. These great forest
tracts , mostly in the mountains of the
far West , are to be managed according
to scientific methods , and this means
that the United States government will
become a large employer of forest en
gineers of various grades. The state of
New York has established a timber res
ervation of more than a million acres in
the Adirondack region ; Pennsylvania
has begun to acquire forest lands within
her territory ; other states will surely
follow before long , and all these will
become employers of skilled foresters.
A few of the large timber operators ,
concerns which own their forests and do
not simply buy the stumpage , have al
ready retained foresters to plan their
cut so as to 'provide for the perpetua
tion of their capital. The leading lum
ber journals of the country are con
stantly reminding the operators of the
need of adopting modern methods in
cutting if they hope to continue in the
business.
It can be clearly seen , therefore , that
there is a growing field for the skilful
forester. Moreover , this field cannot be
occupied successfully by any but Amer
ican-trained men. The European forest
schools are annually turning out more
foresters than can find employment at
home , but such men are educated for
European forest and market conditions
which are totally different from our
own. If men from across the sea expect
to enter our woods to practice ,
it will be needful for them to spend
some time studying the American con
ditions , and even thtn it will be difficult
for them to unlearn much of what has
been drilled into them at homo as funda
mental , and which is wholly inapplica
ble here. Another handicap upon the
foreigner is that , except in rare instanc
es , his knowledge of English is most
imperfect. But ho will come and pa
tiently work out our problem , even to
learning their profession over again in
our schools and acquire a good use of
our language , if our wu young men do
not grasp the opportunity and fill the
positions offered.
Forestry cannot be studied today in
any and every college in the land. There
are at present three prominent schools
devoted exclusively to the subject , and
special courses in certain phases of the
science have lately been opened by a
few other institutions. The three lead
ing schools are here mentioned in the
order of their foundation as follows :
The school at Mr. George Vanderbilt's
forests at Biltmore , N. O. ; the New
York State College of Forestry , Cornell
University , Ithaca , N. Y. ; the Yale For
est School , Yale University , New
Haven , Conn. , Berea College , Berea ,
Ky. , has started a course adapted to the
needs of the mountain farmers , for
whom that college chiefly exists. The
New Hampshire College of Agriculture
and the Mechanic Arts , Durham , N. H. ,
has within the year opened a course in
the subject , which should be of great
help to farmers in northern New En
gland. These are the three chief schools
and two of the minor ones. That courses
are not opened by more colleges is
largely due , no doubt , to the difficulty ,
even the impossibility of securing com
petent instructors , and to their lack of
suitable demonstration forests where
the men can be put to work. This sug
gests still another field for the young
American student who has not yet hit
upon his life work , especially if he has
an inclination to teach for a living.
These schools , and others yet to be ,
must have professors and instructors in
the various branches. Why not study
forestry with a view to teaching the
science ?
It is not in any wise within the scope
of this article to discuss the relative
merits of the several schools here named.
The students should write to the direct
ors of the schools and ask for their
printed pamphlets setting forth their
courses and special advantages. Bilt-
inoro is not an incorporated college , but