EARLY FORESTRYIN MISSOURI

By ERNES,T C. PEGG

Two SCORE and six years ago onan extremely hot afternoon latein August, two strangers alightedfrom an M.K.&T. train in Co-lumbia. One was the newly ap-pointed instructor in Forestryand the other was his bride offour weeks. This new ihstructorreported to Dean Mumford thenext morning and was takenacross the hall to the "ForestryDepartment"-one room whichserved as office, classroom andlaboratory.

The Dean said that it lookedlike some work needed to bedone right away in a small

E C I nursery located at the south endrnest . Pegg, nstructor f h h d ThDep't. of Forestry, 1912-1919 0 t e orc ar.. ere ,,;,ere no

further suggestions or instruc-tions from our chief.

John Arden Ferguson had come from State College, Pa. as Professorof Forestry in 1911 to organize a new Department of Forestry at the Uni-versity of Missouri.

RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY DAYS...1. A timber estimate by use of the Scribner log rule.2. Tree height measurements.3. A height curve based on D. B. H. measurements.4. Cordwood estimates.5. Construction of a volume table.6. A valuation survey.7. Accurate methods of measuring contents of stands.8. Making a volume growth table from stem analysis.9. A special report on logging and milling practices of the operation

near camp, based on observations on the cutting area and in the mill.at West Eminence.

The list sounds impressive, but it might not be too discrete to suggesta comparison of these reported with similar recent ones manufactured byWestveld and Company! Anyway, it was a profitable summer.

Forest education has come a long way since 1912. May the MissouriSchool of Forestry continue to grow with instructors imbued with the sameinspiring enthusiasms as the first class enjoyed!

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After a year, it was deemed necessary to add another member to theteaching staff. He had outlined a course of study, probably very similarto one he had been using at State College, whereby a forestry studentwould receive a rather broad education in academic subjects along withinstruction in forestry subjects on a par with that offered elsewhere. Duringsucceeding years the curriculum was revised to bring it more up to date and

make it more comprehensive.We had no difficulty in dividing the teaching work, each taking the

subjects he felt best qualified to handle. My special field was in woodproducts and anything involving mathematics, but it was sometimes neces-sary to dabble a little in law, economics and a few other things.

There was one popular course offered which was open to anyone,designed primarily to spread good-will by acquainting students with theoverall forestry movement. A thought came to me after two or three yearsthat some of our students 'might engage in certain phases of forestry inwhich business knowledge would be of considerable value. Consequently,some were urged to elect courses in Business Administration. It is gratifyingto know that provision is made in the curriculum today to cover that situ-ation. Anyone who knows Ferguson can picture the following scene whichtook place about Thanksgiving, 1912. A door opens and closes, followed byrapid footsteps and a thud of books as they fall on the desk. Then a bluntstatement, "At Christmas I'm going back to State College for life." Andhe did. What was left for me to do except carryon alone to the end of thesemester to the best of my ability!

Fortunately, Howard DeForest (Vale 'llF) took over the work Fer-guson would have handled for the second semester and Frederick Dunlap(Cornell), came in September 1913 as Professor of Forestry and Head of

the Department.The Agricultural Chemistry building was ready for occupancy in theautumn of 1913. This left vacant a large room located on the second floorof the Agricultural building. It was assigned to the Forestry Department.

It was large enough to make two small offices with plenty of space left forclassroom and laboratory work. For two years we had gradually been ac-cumulating a small library of trade journals, books, bulletins and circularsfrom all possible sources. These were now readily available for student use.

Before long, a new Physics Building was completed. Farm Managementwas needing more room and we were moved into the Physics building. Thiswas really nice for we now had two good private offices, a stenographer'soffice, a large classroom and an excellent laboratory. Everything was break-ing well for us.

But before long, the United States became involved in a World War.Columbia became alive with a naval unit and a vocational unit, and adecree was issued that any agriculture student wishing to engage in the wareffort would be excused. We had already lost several students and now allwere gone. Some returned in the autumn of 1919. My connection with theForestry Department ceased at that time. '

During those seven years, 1912 to 1919 the students maintained arather lukewarm interest in a Forestry Club. Sometimes this interest was atthe boiling point and sometimes at the freezing point. We almost alwayshad a speaker who brought a message a little different from what was heardin the classroom. Captain J. B. White, an old-time lumberman, was afavorite. Sometimes we listened to a politician, sometimes to a student, andoften to a faculty member from another department.

Each January, the entire Agricultural School observed Farmer's Weekwhen hundreds of Missouri farmers took off a few days and listened tovarious faculty members discourse on what was new or should be of interest.We cooperated in a short program or .demonstration. The week ended witha roast beef (prize steer) banquet at the gymnasium with a faculty mem-ber and wife as hosts at each table. It seems those in attendance saved upfor this meal and seldom did a host get a bite until all at his table weresatisfied!

The Agriculture students put on a Farmers' Fair annually. Most de-partments built some sort of a float for the parade. Otherwise it was aboutthe same as our 4-H fair today, minus the livestock, baking, clothing andmachinery exhibits. In other words, it was just plain fun and foolishness.

The Forestry Department was also part of the Agriculture ExperimentStation. There were three long-range projects initiated in the autumn of1912 and spring of 1913. First was the effect of storage conditions on treeseed germination. Seeds were collected and stored in various types of con-tainers under various moisture conditions. Second was the efficiency of vari-ous preservative treatments of species of timber commonly found on thefarm and used for posts. Each year, posts were examined and notations madeas to decay resulting from fungus attacks. Professor George Reed of theBotany Department assisted in identifying the fungi and amounts of damage.Third was basket willow culture. A few willow cuttings of some six to tenvarieties were planted. These were cut the next year and replanted in largerplots. The object. was to determine the best v,ariety to .grow and the bestmethod of production.

There probably are no records of any of the above projects. However, abrief visit in 1929 showed quite a number of so-called perishable posts whichhad been treated with hot and cold creosote which were still in good con-dition. Most of the more durable woods, even with no treatment, were also

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in fair condition. This was 16 years after setting them out.Professor Ferguson directed the first summer camp located near West

Eminence where a large mill was in operation producing yellow pine lumberunder the management of C. C. Sheppard. He was an exceptionally capableman who served his company well, and was an inspiration to many youngmen starting in life. This summer camp was the usual type of those days.There were tents, cots and folding chairs and a cook tent; there were noluxuries. Due to illness of Dr. J. C. Whitten's youn!?; son, who was thecook, Ferguson took that job on also. We know, for we visited the campon our way to Indiana! Instruction was principally in lumbering, summeridentification of trees, a little forest mensuration, silviculture and engineering.

The second camp was at Poplar Bluff for a lumbering and productsstudy; just north of the Collins' farm (George Collins' store is probablyfamiliar to most Missouri forestry students) was the camp for all other in-struction. This camp deserves special mention for perhaps it is the only oneever held which can boast of being co-educational for two whole days.

A Mrs. Miller, with her two sons, Max and Julian who were forestrystudents, lived at Christian College. Zelma Chaplain, whose home wasPoplar Bluff, attended Christian College. Result: Mr. and Mrs. Chaplainbrought their two daughters and several other girls out to Hendrickson onan early morning train. Our entire camp personnel inclu.ding Andy thecook, an enormous supply of food, and Bill Pennell with the Collins' wagonand team met them for a day's outing along the river. The guests tookover our tents for the night and we took to the woods under the stars.

Another high point of this camp was an over-night fishing trip withBill Pennell and the two Collins' boys.

Kennett was the scene of another camp where we used the mill andholdings of the Kemphill Lumber Company. Other field work was somefew miles southeast of Arlington. Rain was responsible for two amusingevents. We had picked a camp site on the bank of a small stream in theafternoon and a rain storm was brewing. We hurriedly unloaded our campequipment, pitched two or three tents and put everything under cover.The storm broke and in a few minutes, water was over the bank and run-ning through the tents. Fortunately, the rain soon ceased, so we moved tohigher ground immediately. Some days later we had more rain all nightand all forenoon, but the sun came out shortly afterwards. One of theboys spotted a squirrel and finally brought it down. Well, we had a cookwho cleaned the squirrel but for several days it seemed to us that we hadsquirrel hair in everything, even the canned fruit. Other camps we had atPossum Lodge (Hooker) and Midco (Freemont) were uneventful.

Title to several thousand acres was held by the University of Missouriin the early days of this century. No one tract was very large, but severalcounties had more than one thousand acres. Nothing was being done withany of these holdings, so around 1916, the Department of Forestry wasgiven authority to take over their management. The first step, of course, wasto locate boundaries of the various tracts. Next would come the appoint-ment of some local resident to do what could be done to prevent fires andother damage, and to act as a sort of supervisor. It was planned to consol-idate the holdings by sale, purchase or exchange and eventually bring theland into as good a state of production as possible. However, only a partof the first step was successfully carried out. Work was begun on the

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"Butler Forest." Some work was done west of Doniphan and a little inTaney County. It is nice to know that our survey notes on the "ButlerForest" (University Forest) are still useful in the present program of the

Missouri School of Forestry.It was very common in 1910 to hear Professor J. W. Tourney of Yale

say "I'm writing a book and it is a prodigious job." It is also a prodigiousjob to start from nothing, build up a forest school and bring a large tractof timber under management. It takes years to educate the public to ap-preciate even the need for one's efforts. After an absence of nearly 40 years,it seems to me that Missouri has made wonderful progress, not only indeveloping an excellent School of Forestry, but also in bringing about amuch more favorable public attitude than existed in the early 1900's. Mysincerest congratulations to each and everyone who has had even a smallpart in this great work.

WINTER SEMESTERGlenn HartBill Nelson

Ron CockrelGeorge Richmond

FALL SEMESTERHugh SpeightDon RollensMelvin KoellingOscar Dooling

ForesterAssistant Forester

SecretaryRanger

SERVING FOR THE YEAR

Ray Benton.

Eugene Brunk

Earl Niewald

Treasurer_Parliamentarian

Historian

The school year 1958-1959 showed another successful year for theForestry Club. Membership totaled 115 with a large percentage of themembers being in attendance at the regular meetings.

The first meeting of the year got underway with a welcome to newstudents by Dr. Smith. The activities of the Forestry Club, Xi Sigma Pi,and Missouri Log were explained by members of the various groups. Anintroduction of all new members was made at this meeting.

Later meetings included talks by Mr. William Cherry of WeyerhaeuserTimber Co. and Mr. David Kim of the Gaylord Container Corporation.

The educational portion of other meetings included films of forestryin India, shown by Syed Shah Noor Ali, and a movie entitled the "PotlatchStory ."

On other occasions slides of the northern field trip were shown by Mr.O'Neil, and Ted Mokry presented slides of Glacier National Park.

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By EARL NIEW ALD

CLUB LEADERSHIP