Plan for Forest Preservation.

The February number of the Century Magazine devotes several pages to opinions by distinguished men on Professor Charles S. Sargent's plan for preserving the forests of the United States. Professor Sargent is director of the Arnold Arboretum and has given much of his time to the study of the subject. His plan has four features, the establishment at West Point of a chair of forestry, with supplementary practical work, the purchase of an experimental forest reservation, the assignment of educated officers to supervision of such reservation, and the enlistment of a special forest guard.

The plan is generally commended, but some authorities have criticised unfavorably the first feature, because an extra term would have to be added to the West Point curriculum, by which the time of the students is already completely occupied. Objection is made to the second feature on the ground that different elements of soil and climate are found in the western forests from the eastern.

Professor N. S. Shaler expresses great satisfaction at Professor Sargent's plan and is in favor of placing the national forests under the supervision of army officers. He doubts, however, the practicability of giving the proposed instruction at West Point. The task can be more effectively accomplished after the men leave the Academy, in a school specially adapted to the purpose. But the plan as a whole he commends, principally because "it provides for employment in time of peace of a considerable force which, in case of public need, could be at once turned to the uses of war."