xtremely desirable,
if not altogether essential, are mineralogy, meteorology, mechanics,
physical geography, organic chemistry, and possibly calculus, which may
be of use in timber physics.

One or two forest schools begin their course of training for the first
year in July instead of in October, in order to give their students some
acquaintance with the woods from the Forester's standpoint before the
more formal courses begin. The result of this plan is to give increased
vividness and reality to all the courses which follow the work in the
woods, to make clear the application of what is taught, and so to add
greatly to the efficiency of the teaching.

In addition to this preliminary touch with the woods, any wise plan of
teaching will include many forest excursions and much practical field
work as vitally important parts of the instruction. This outdoor work
should occur throughout the whole course, winter and summer, and in
addition, the last term of the senior year may well be spent wholly in
the woods, where the students can be trained in the management of
logging operations and milling, and can get their final practice work in
surveying and map-making, in preparing forest working plans, estimating
timber, laying out roads and trails, making plans for lumber operations,
and other similar practical work. Several of the best forest schools
have adopted this plan.

The regular courses of a graduate forest school usually cover a period
of two years. They should fit a student for nearly every phase of
professional work in forestry, and should give him a sound preparation
not merely for practical work in the woods, but also for the broader
work of forest organization in the Government Service in the United
States and in the Philippines, and in the service of the States; for
handling large tracts of private forest lands; for expert work in the
employ of lumbermen and other forest owners; for public speaking and
writing; for teaching; and for scientific research.

Every well equipped forest school will have a working library of books,
pamphlets, and lumber journals published here and abroad, an herbarium
at least of native trees and shrubs and of the more important forest
herbs, together with a collection of forest tree fruits and seeds, and
specimens of domestic and foreign timbers. Exhibits showing the uses of
woods and the various forms of tools used in lumbering, as well as the
apparatus for laboratory work and surv