294
TAL SALUOUMINI
WE is
as the willingness to bear privation
cheerfully.
man who takes up forestry will
often find the field work exceedingly
or even unexpectedly hard, for it com-
bines severe mental work with severe
bodily labor, under conditions which
make each one peculiarly trying.
Work in the woods differs pro-
foundly from camp life as it is
usually understood. Foresters get a
certain amount of hunting and fishing,
and every forester will do his work
better for a whole love of the rod and
gun, but the line between work and
play is still sharply drawn.
I have been speaking of the funda-
mental qualities which are more or less
necessary to success in any vigorous
outdoor life. There are several addi-
tional capacities with which the forester
should be well endowed. The first
of these is the power of observation.
It is often difficult to say a priort
whether a man has it or not. In many
cases it makes itself known as a love
of hunting or fishing, or a general
pleasure in all outdoors. To the for-
ester it is one of the most essential
qualities in his mental equipment.
Finally, perseverance, initiative and self-
reliance are peculiarly necessary, be-
cause the forester is so often with-
drawn from the inspection of his supe-
riors and altogether dependent on his
own steadfastness and devotion to keep
him up to the high standard he should
set himself for his work. In a new field
of effort this is especially likely to be
true. It is one of the distinguishing
characteristics of the profession of for-
estry.
PREPARATION.
The preparation for forestry as a pro-
fession should, as a rule, begin with a
college or university course, and should
be continued after graduation in most
cases for three years. The more im-
portant auxillary subjects are:
(1) Botany, especially as it relates to
the life and structure of plants.
(2) Geology, with special emphasis
on the origin and meaning of the sur-
face features of the earth, thus includ-
ing physical geography.
(3) Some knowledge of Chemistry
and Physics, and if convenient, some
Zoology and Entomology as well.
(4) Mathematics, including Geome-
try and Trigonometry, and a good
working knowledge of surveying.
(5) Some knowledge of Law and of
business methods.
(6) French or German, preferably
the latter, and still better, both.
(7) A good course in Economics.
(8) The History and Geography of
the United States, with special reference
to its economic development and its
present economic status.
(9) Meteorology.
The first step in the preparation for
forestry as a profession is for the pos-
sible forester to discover whether his
conception of forestry is a right oné.
To do so he must get into the field.
The Division of Forestry has made
provision to meet this requirement by
establishing the grade of Student-
Assistant, with pay at the rate of
$300 a year. Men who take this posi-
tion are required to assist in the work
of the Division with the same steadiness
and devotion to duty as all its other
members, and they are employed so far
as possible in work of peculiar value
to them and at the same time of use in
the general progress. All their ex-
penses are defrayed while in the field. |
In addition to the specific advantage
this grade offers in enabling a man to
take part in actual forest.work under a
trained forester, and so discover what
the profession really means, it has a
special usefulness in enabling men who
cannot afford fuller preparation to sup-
port themselves while getting their
education. It does not replace a for-
est school with advantage, nor is the
intention that it should. No future
‘ forester who can possibly afford to take
a course, either at Cornell, under Dr.
Fernow, or at Biltmore, under Dr.
Schenck, should fail to do so. |
POSITIONS OF STUDENT ASSISTANT.
The number of positions as Student
Assistant is decidedly limited. Parties
will be in the field during the coming
Summer in the Adirondacks, in the
State of Washington, and possibly also
in Maine. No one will be received
as Student Assistant who has not defi-
nitely made up his mind to take up for-
estry as a profession, although of course
no pledge to that effect is required.
In my judgment the best course for
the future forester to pursue, so far as
his systematic training is concerned, is
first, one year at a university, filling up
the blanks in the auxiliary subjects
mentioned above; second, a year at a
forest school, preferably where practical
work in the woods goes hand in hand
with theoretical instruction; and third,
a year abroad. The latter is of the
greatest value, because in this country
forestry is too young to show the effect
of silvicultural treatment on the vari-
ous forests; although much that is
learned abroad must be unlearned later.
This experience in a region where for-
estry is of old date is, in my judgment,
a most essential portion of a forester’s
education. It goes without saying that
vacations, as far as possible, should be
spent in the woods.
Forestry on its executive side is
closer to lumbering than to any other
calling, and a good knowledge of the
lumberman’s methods is an _ essential
part of a forester’s education. But it
must not be forgotten that it offers a
field for pure research of the widest and
most attractive character for those who
are inclined and can afford to occupy
it. It is so broad a subject that as yet,
we do not quite know what its develop-
ment and its subdivisions are going
to be. 3
<i, >
New York University Club.
The-new club house of the Univer-
sity Club, No. 1 West 54th st., will
be opened for the use of members on
Wednesday evening, May 17, at nine
o'clock. Supper will be served later.
The privilege of inviting visitors is sus-
pended for that evening.
The following is a complete list of the
Clubs which have extended the cour-
tesies of their houses to the members
of the University Club during the in-
terval of removal:
- Metropolitan Club; Union League
Club; Century Association; Calumet
Club; Lotos Club; New York Club;
Riding Club; Racquet and Tennis
Club; Hamilton Club; Players’ Club;
Harvard Club; Transportation Club;
Aldine Association; Engineers’ Club,
fe aA
Spring Regatta.
The annual Spring Regatta of the
class and scrub crews will be held at
Lake Whitney, Saturday afternoon,
May 20. The scrub crews will row
over the short course and the class
crews over the mile and one-quarter
course. The members of the winning
crews will receive banners, and the
numerals of the winning class crew will
be placed upon the Scranton Challenge
Cup. The scrub crews, entered for the
Regatta, are Harlequin, Gentlemen’s
Fight, Coystrel, Welch Hall and
Favonian. In the class races, the
Junior, Sophomore, and First and Sec-
‘ond Freshman crews are entered.
One of the features of the regatta will
be a race between the first and second
University Crews over the mile and
a quarter course.
<n, din
ef
Divinity School Commencement
President Stryker of Hamilton Col-
lege delivered the anniversary address
to the Divinity. School, in Center
Church, on Sunday evening, May 14.
Exercises on Commencement Day be-
gin at 10.30 A.M., Wednesday, May 17,
with the addresses by members of the
graduating class, in College Street Hall.
At I o'clock the Alumni Association
dinner will be given in the Chapel of
the United Church, on Temple street.
A number of informal addresses will be
delivered.
A reception for the alumni and their
wives, the members of the graduating
class, and friends of the seminary will
be held in the Lowell Mason library
room, from 4.30 to 6 o’clock.
Twenty-one men will graduate this
year.
The New England Intercollesi
° J e J giate
Athletic Association will hold its annual
meeting at Worcester, Mass., May 27.
MORE GRADUATE FIGURES.
Professions and Business—Locality.
{Reprinted by permission from May number of the
Yale Review.]
The movements of no class of people
in the community are more carefully
recorded than those of the American
college graduates. This is especially
true of the graduates of Yale College,
whose whereabouts and occupations are
the basis of the successive Class Secre-
taries’ Reports, the high statistical value
of which we owe to the persistency and
intimate relations of the class system in
the Academic Department of that Uni-.
versity. ;
During the ten years, 1883-1802,
1,468 men were graduated from the Col-
lege. The birthplace, permanent resi-
dence and permanent vocation of almost
all of these is on record; also the voca-
tion of four-fifths of their fathers. . The
distribution among the different profes-
sions and occupations in the case of
both the fathers and the sons. is indi-
cated in percentages of all the fathers
and sons where records are obtainable,
as follows: |
OCCUPATION OF
Ministry
Medicine
Teaching and Science
-—-er ew wm ww em ews ewww we we ewe ewww n eo Sew we
lle
Learned Professions (and college graduates in the case
of the fathers)
Business
-
Engineering ____.
Journalism and Letters
Farm, Plantation or Ranch
Government Service
Miscellaneous
ii i a ee er ee
FATHERS ; SON.
Say eRe aa ies 19.3% 34.4%
(Sle pig A Seed a bial 10.1 6.7
oe ee et 5.2 9.2
SDE AROS Son eR OA 2.9 12.5
ee 37.5 62.8
poses cach 2 eee 50.7 30.0
0.7 t2
ee ee S Saag he de 1.3 23
ES RODMAN SE IAEA S| 8.0 0.7
reat hee Fo 1.0 0.8
pe eS See O27 1.7
99.9 100.0
In an earlier number of the Yale
Review (for November, 1898), an analy-
sis of the occupations of the graduates
of Yale College was given.
the facts there noted are further em-
phasized by the above table. The frac-
tion of ministers among recent gradu-
ates has fallen from a much larger figure
to 6.7%. A larger fraction of the
fathers of these graduates, namely
10.1%, were ministers. Their sons
evidently turned to other professions.
Much the same is true of the farmers
and planters. 8 per cent. of the fathers
were so occupied. But of the above
generation. of college graduates less
than 1% devoted themselves to agricul-
tural pursuits. In the case of business
occupations, half of the fathers were
business men (merchants, bankers,
manufacturers, brokers, etc); of the
sons, less than one-third were; a strik-
ing fact when we recall that in: earlier
times the college education was almost
exclusively a preparation for a profes-
stonal career, which was pursued so
largely by the sons of professional
men. Of recent graduates, as is seen,
Some of.
something less than two-thirds devote
themselves to a learned profession (law,
medicine, ministry, teaching or science).
But of the fathers, only 37.5% belonged
to the learned professions or had en-
joyed a collegiate education. A large
majority, nearly two-thirds of collegiate
graduates of recent times, at Yale Col-
lege at least, are sons of fathers who
have enjoyed neither an academic nor
a professional education. The college
men of to-day are selected from a much
broader area, geographically and profes-
sionally, than were those of earlier
times. The hereditary aristocracy of
college graduates is a thing of the past.
As to the profession of teaching and
the pursuit of science, the fraction has
steadily risen till it reaches 12.5%
among the graduates of the above ten
years; while of the fathers only 2.9%
were teachers or scientific men. We
must defer the examination of the ques-
tion whether this result must be ascribed
to the growing attractiveness of the
‘teacher's profession (in the case of the
sons); or to the unremunerativeness of
the profession and inability (on the
part of the fathers) to send sons to
college.
FATHERS’ OCCUPATION, BY SECTIONS AND IN PERCENTAGES.
Learned
Professions Farm
Teaching (Col, 1-4), and
and and College Planta-
Law Ministry. Medicine. Science. Graduates. Business. tion.
New England. .<. 14.6 “334 5.5 3.3 40.0 47.8 i
Middle Atlantic... 19.1 7.9 6.6 2.6 42.7 55.6 3.6
North (center... 26.0 6.7 3.3 4.7 48.0 52.7 2.7
South Atlantic...._ . 26.7 6.7 he ip 58.8 20.7 6.7
South Center ..___- 46.2 ee ts 3.8 acts 53.8 30.8 - 11.5
NEOuniAInG oS 50.0 ie pps ene 50.0 25.0 oe
Patines oe ai ee eats 25.0 ree 33.3 50.0 25.0
Lip. Pe Cae 5.0 22.0 5.0 aaa 38.1 65.0 See
The above table classifies the fathers
by geographical sections and by occu-
pations. The minor occupations in-
cluded in the first table are here omitted.
In the divisions of the country, the
Middle Atlantic States include New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
Delaware; the South Atlantic States,
those from Maryland and West Vir-
ginia to Florida inclusive; the South
Central States include Kentucky, Ten-
nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Indian Territory, Oklahoma,
and Texas; the North Central States,
those north of the last division; the
Mountain States and Territories, the
remaining ones except the tier of Pacific
States. The figures for the Mountain
and Pacific States in the above table
must be neglected, as they are based
on too few data. |
_ As would be expected, farmers and
planters are more numerously repre-
sented among the fathers of the South-
ern and New England students than
among those of the Middle Atlantic
and North Central students. This pre-
ponderance of farmers in New England
must of course be due to the educa-
tional facilities and traditions of that
section; that of planters in the South
must be due to the fact that they still
constitute, not as of old, the bulk, but
at least a considerable part of the well-
to-do class.
It is, moreover, noticeable that the :
learned professions and college grad-
uates are most strongly represented
among the fathers of Southern students,
while in the North Central section the
percentage falls to 48%; in the Middle
States, to 42.7%; and in New England,
to 40%. Correspondingly, business
men are least numerous among the
fathers of Southern students, and most
numerous among those of North Cen-
tral and Middle States students. It is
among the latter that lawyers also pre-
dominate. A comparison of the type
of fathers in New England and in the
North Central States who have sent
their sons to college is interesting. In
New England roughly half the fathers
were business men; of the rest the law,
the ministry and the farm are about
equally represented, while medicine
and teaching occupy a less prominent
place. In the North Central States a
trifle more than half the fathers were
business men; one-fifth were lawyers;
the ministry sinks to half the import-
ance it had in New England; farming
to one-third the importance; -while
medicine and teaching occupy about the
same position that they do in New Eng-
land.
Another subject upon which the
statistics of Yale College graduates
throw much light is the interstate
movement of population. The follow-
ing figures give the place of birth and
the “place of permanent residence of
approximately all the graduates of the
years 1883-1892: