struction which he shall pursue are to the young man
contemplating the study of forestry matters of the first importance. The
first thing to insist on in that connection is that the training must be
thorough. It is natural that a young man should be eager to begin his
life work and therefore somewhat impatient of the long grind of a
thorough schooling. But however natural, it is not the part of wisdom to
cut short the time of preparation. When the serious work of the trained
Forester begins later on, there will be little or no time to fill the
gaps left at school, and the earnest desire of the young Forester will
be that he had spent more time in his preparation rather than less. In
this matter I speak as one who has gathered a conviction from personal
experience, and believes he knows.

It would be useless to attempt to strike an average of the work
prescribed and the courses given at the various forest schools. I shall
describe, therefore, not an average system of instruction but one which,
in the judgment of men entitled to an opinion, and in my own judgment,
is sound, practical, and effective.

Forest schools may roughly be divided between those which do not prepare
men for professional work in forestry, and those which do. The latter
may be divided again into undergraduate schools and graduate schools.
Most of the former offer a four-year undergraduate course, and their
students receive their degrees at the same time as other members of the
University who entered at the same time with them. The graduate schools
require a college degree, or its equivalent in certain subjects, before
they will receive a student. The men who have completed their courses
have usually, therefore, pursued more extensive and more advanced
studies in forestry, are better trained, and are themselves older and
more ready to accept the responsibilities which forestry brings upon
them. For these reasons, the graduate school training is by far the more
desirable, in my opinion.

The subjects required for entrance to a graduate forest school should
include at least one full year in college botany, covering the general
morphology, histology, and physiology of plants, one course each in
geology, physics, inorganic chemistry, zooelogy, and economics, with
mathematics through trigonometry, and a reading knowledge of French or
German. Some acquaintance with mechanical drawing is also desirable but
not absolutely necessary. Other courses which are e