The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1916-12-22

men come in to attend school. These
rugged veterans of the mountains
are usually short on book learning,
but rich in the lore of the hills and
forest. They sit shoulder to Shout
der in classes with the young college
students and embryo foresters. They
bring in to the younger technical
students the atmosphere of the for
ests and the romance and good fell
lowship of the great western out-of-
doors.
Lunlberjacks Take Short Course
OF Study in Botany and Zoology.
In addition to training in practical
phases of their work, the rangers
study English, mathematics, and
some of the natural sciences. Some
of the best scholarship grades ever
made in the university were earned
last winter in such natural sciences
as botany and zoology, by men who
had never before tracked a plant cell
or a protOZOan to it's lair. and to
whom looking over the sights of
rifle was much more familiar sport
than squirting through the barrel
of a microscope.
Then. these old boys of the hills
like to play as much as their young
err fellow students. They are known
to the regular students of the fores-
try school as the "chilblains," while
the regular students are known in
turn by the rangers as 'rah rahs."
These are terms of affection between
them, however, and an unusual feel
in of comradship and good fellow
ship exists between the two classes
of students. While they are in the
school, the annual lumberjacks'
dance is given, which has come to be
the most largely attended and most
popular function OF the university's
social year.
Just as the rangers and other
woodsmen come in from the woods
during the winter to attend a short
course at school, so do the regular
students go out in the summer to
secure part of their training under
the practical tutelage of the rangers
in the forests. Last summer every
student in the forest school secured
employment of this kind during the
vacation period. This kind of work
enables the student to nearly earn
his way through college and adds
not little to his knowledge of for
estry.
The students live in the atmos-
phere of the forest almost constantly
for the entire four years of their at
tendance in the school and because
of their summer employment, for
estry training is almost continuous
through their school terms and va
| cation months.
Instructors Men of High
Degree of Technical Training.
In organizing a faculty of teach
ers, the authorities of the university
high degree of technical training in
fession gained through a record of
tical forestry work. There are four
professors and two assistants in the
teaching force of the school.
Dorr Skeels, who is the dean of
the faculty, was for number of
years a supervisor of national for
| ests in the northwest. He was later
appointed as government logging en-.
gineer and gained large reputation
with western lumbermen both in
District l and in the southwest, by
his work as specialist in the lum-
bering industry.
Three professors in the faculty of
the forest school were supervisors of
national forests before taking up
their work as teachers in the uni
versity. Professor James H. Bonner,
who is in charge of the department
of forest engineering, has done much
practical work both as a government
engineer and in many extensive pro-
jects of highway and bridge con-
struction in the forest regions Of
Montana and Idaho.