South by extending this aid, let it be done in such a way as not to hamper them.

If it were not for the negroes, the southern States would not need this aid and would not ask it, and if it were not for the negroes no member of Congress would propose it. It is due to the South in common fairness, and the people of the South have shown that they are in earnest in educating the negroes and are worthy of it. I honor northern men who favor it, and I am surprised at southern men who oppose it. I honor northern men more who favor it without hampering restrictions, and I am the more surprised at southern men who oppose it when it is proposed that the funds shall be managed by State authorities.

So far as the question of civil rights as distinguished from social privileges is concerned, that is fast working itself out, and the less force applied to it the better.

It is no unusual thing now in the South to find negroes riding in firstclass cars with the whites. I have seen negroes in the political conventions of both political parties; I have seen them serving with the whites as jurymen in the trial of important causes. Recently, in a city of the South, at the dedication of a public school building, I saw white and colored aldermen seated on the same rostrum during the ceremonies. In all such intercourse proper conduct and qualifications can be made requisites. Indeed, in all social and semi-social intercourse the correct policy is to apply as little force as possible, and let people's likes and dislikes and the free spirit of our republican institutions control.

The white people of the South insist rigidly upon but two things as to intercourse between the races: (1) That there shall be separate public schools for both races, and (2) that there shall be no inter-marriages between the races. The negroes, or rather the too sanguine friends of the negroes, who do not know them, will act wisely if they will make no contest on these two points. These are matters of public policy which the States have a right to control, and about which there is almost unanimity of sentiment.

In this paper I have spoken of education in a general way only, using the term in its broadest siguification. While education in books, especially in the fundamental branches of English, is, perhaps, of prime importance, industrial education is of scarcely less importance, and it is pressing for proper recognition in our systems. How and to what extent it can be applied for the benefit of the negroes I cannot now discuss, more than to say that it is most highly probable that an unusually large proportion of them will always find their places on the farms, and that therefore special efforts ought to be made to teach them the most improved methods of farming. Farm life is itself a very fine industrial school, and as the general farming interests of the South are improved the negroes will share largely in the benefits.

SIXTH SESSION.

Friday Morning, February 26, 1886.

President EASTON called the meeting to order at All Souls' Church at 10 A. M. Prayer was offered by Prof. J. A. B. LOVETT, of Alabama. Hon. WARREN HIGLEY, President of the American Forestry Congress, read the following paper:

FORESTRY IN EDUCATION.

In appearing before you to discuss the subject of "Forestry in Education," and to advocate the introduction of its study into our American schools, I am not unmindful of the fact that the number and variety of subjects now taught in the public schools are quite alarming to those whose school experience was rounded by the "three R's"; nor do I forget that the spirit pervading the philosophy of our modern education prompts to the suitable introduction of all those branches of knowledge that are deemed essential to the highest usefulness of the citizen. I therefore trust that the importance of this subject may soon be so recog nized as to be given a suitable place in the curriculum of public school instruction.

It is a trite saying, but no less a true one, that our public schools form the bulwark of our national strength; and "Education, the guardian of liberty" is a motto whose exalting truth we delight to recognize. But how the public schools shall continue to be the bulwark of our American institutions, and what education shall be the sure guardian of liberty, are the grave questions submitted to you for consideration and

answer.

It is evident that the education of our American youth should be directed with reference to their future sovereign citizenship; that while they are trained into an accurate knowledge of the fundamental branches upon which science, literature, and philosophy rest, they shall also be led to observe the working of Nature's laws in her various manifestations, and the effects produced by man's violation of them.

Something of history and of the science of government are necessary to be added to the "three R's" by way of preparation for the intelligent exercise of the right of franchise; and instruction in those departments of American economics that most nearly touch the productive energies of the people and affect most seriously the results of their labors should by no means be omitted in the common school curriculum.

It is not so much the mere knowledge that is gained in the brief period of school life that educates, as the inspiration there given to know more, and the avenues there opened and the means pointed out by which that higher and larger knowledge can be gained through individual, persistent effort.

Our American forests have been the subject of much discussion the past few years, both scientific and popular. Important statistics concerning them have been gathered with great care, and made the basis of much painstaking investigation with most important results. They have also been used with good effect in pointing out the dangers to the Republic that must result from the present rapid destruction of our forests, ifadequate measures for their protection and necessary restoration are not adopted and enforced. Much has been written and said upon the sub. ject that will not, perhaps, bear the test of scientific criticism. And yet the widespread agitation of forestry questions-the popular side of themhas attracted the earnest attention of the best minds of the nation. Legislatures are passing laws to meet the exigencies of their several States. Agricultural and horticultural societies are making forestry one of the most prominent subjects in their discussions. The newspaper and the magazine, those mightiest engines in the education of the people, give this subject an important place in their columns. The interest is rapidly growing and spreading, and the times have ripened for the consideration of the educational problems involved in this forestry question. Recognizing the truth of the old German proverb, that "Whatsoever we would have appear in the nation's life we must introduce into the public schools," let us consider what there is in the subject of Forestry that necessarily connects its science, in its practical application, with the life of the nation, and renders its study by the youth of the land an essential part of their education.

The science of Forestry, like that of Agriculture, is, as yet, largely experimental. It has been built up and formulated so far upon facts gathered by extensive observation and scientific investigation. It is the result of one of our modern necessities, receiving national recog nition less than a century and a half ago, in Europe, where the ruthless destruction of the forests in many of the earlier settled portions had caused dire disaster, and in some cases utter desolation. In Asia, too, the effects of widespread deforesting were still more apparent, where regions, once renowned for fertility of soil and salubrity of climate, and the abodes of happy and prosperous peoples, had become barren wastes incapable of supporting civilized man.

As a basis for our argument in favor of the study of American Forestry, let us consider briefly some of the lessons of history, and hastily trace the growth of the science in the Old World, and the effect of its introduction into the schools upon the continuance and growth of national prosperity.

In the study of ancient history we trace the rise of nations from small beginnings to power and opulence, and then their decline from pinnacles of influence to weakness or extinction. In all the nations that became renowned, we find that the foundation of their greatness rested upon the productiveness of the soil and the salubrity of the climate as the most important factors in their growth and prosperity.

We find, too, that these countries were all originally well waterea, and mostly well wooded, and blessed with an equable climate. No country or nation was ever more fortunate in a happy combination of physical advantages than Rome at the time she was the recognized mistress of the world.

Her vast provinces bordering on the Mediterranean and its tributaries were especially noted for "a fertility of soil, a variety of vege table and mineral products, and natural facilities for the transportation and distribution of exchangeable commodities, which have not been possessed in an equal degree by any territory of like extent in the Old World or the New."

The fairest and the fruitfulest provinces of the Roman Empire [says Marsh], precisely that portion of terrestrial surface, in short, which, about the commencement of the Christian Era, was endowed with the greatest superiority of soil, climate, and position, which had been carried to the highest pitch of physical improvement, and which thus combined the natural and artificial conditions best fitting it for the habitation and enjoyment of a highly refined and cultivated population, is now completely exhausted of its fertility, or so diminished in productiveness as, with the exception of a few favored oases that have escaped the general ruin, to be no longer capable of affording sustenance to civilized man. If to this realm of desolation we add the now wasted and solitary soils of Persia and the remoter East, that once fed their millions with milk and honey, we shall see that a territory larger than all Europe, the abundance of which sustained in bygone centuries a population scarcely inferior to that of the whole Christian world at the present day, has been entirely withdrawn from human use, or, at best, is thinly inhabited by tribes too few in numbers, too poor in superfluous products, and too little advanced in culture and the social arts, to contribute anything to the general moral or material interests of the great commonwealth of man.

This degenerate condition of these once famous lands is not alone due to the destruction of their forest areas. The crushing despotisms of Rome sapped the prosperity of her fair provinces through a system of the most exacting tributes, and these were followed by spiritual tyrannies still more enervating and destructive to the general prosperity. In the struggle for existence man recklessly warred against nature. He stripped her ridges and spurs and mountain sides of their forest covering. The head-waters of rivers and streams were robbed of their natural reservoirs by the axe-men, and the fertile fields below made subject to destructive floods and droughts. The deterioration in the fertility of soil, and in the climatic and hydrographic conditions, is traceable to the wanton destruction of the forests more than to any and all other causes.

Sicily.-Sicily was once noted as the granary of Rome. But with the destruction of her forests she lost her fertility of soil and her noted mildness of climate. Proud and opulent Syracuse lies in ruins in a desert covered by drifting sands, which the hot sirocco brought on its swift wings from the African coast. All that is left to remind the traveler of the ancient power and glory of the once famed Sicily are a few

districts here and there, of a limited extent, that are still well watered and carefully cultivated.

Palestine.-Canaan, the promised land, that "flowed with milk and honey," was, in the time of Joshua and for centuries after, a country of wonderful fertility. The mountains of Lebanon, the ridges and knolls and steep hillsides, were then covered with dense forests, and the stately cedars became the subject of sacred poesy and the objects of veneration. The dense population of Palestine flourished in the midst of abundance for hundreds of years. But the gradual destruction of her forests, quite completed by the vandalism of the Venetians and the Genoese, resulted in an impoverishment of soil that left this once fair country a desert. The Jordan has long been an insignificant stream-its yellow, turgid waters overflowing its banks and carrying to the sea the loose soil of the hills around during the rainy season, and then dwindling to a mere brooklet in the summer months. The several smaller streams, not ed for their beauty and beneficence in Bible times, now are but stony runs, completely dry during the greater part of the year. "A few fertile spots have retained their old fertility, but the few cedar trees remaining as a landmark around the Maronite convent on the rocky and barren Lebanon look lonely and mournfully upon an arid and desolate country, not capable of sustaining one-sixth of the population it contained at the time of Solomon."

It is not my purpose to multiply examples from history. I mention these simply to call your attention to the indisputable fact that a country of mountainous and hilly surface, when stripped of its protecting forests, rapidly becomes unproductive and in every way unfitted for a high degree of prosperity and civilization.

Forestry Education in Europe.-In the early part of the eighteenth century the Governments of Prussia and France had their attention seriously called to the rapidity with which the forests were disappearing within their borders, and the disastrous effects which were sure to follow. The great Frederick cast the horoscope of the future for his be. loved Prussia, and saw that his little kingdom could grow and prosper only through the observance of a policy that would preserve and increase the forest area-assist rather than war against nature's method of preserving the fruitfulness of the soil. He made it a law to divide the forests into equal sections, and to fell the timber in successive annual portions-in fact, to institute a systematic treatment of the forest domain with a view to its improvement and perpetuation. Forest ordinances in different parts of Germany had been passed as early as the latter part of the fifteenth century, but more especially with a view to preserve the game for the pleasure of the hunter and the tables of royalty and the rich. Game and forest keepers were the first real foresters. Count J. G. von Langen, one of the principal game and forest keepers of those times, introduced in 1740 the first systematic working plan in the Harz Mountains, and soon after this we find in Prussia the