94 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



way to attain later positions of actual command. On the other side more- 

 over, we should not by any means neglect the recent movement among lumber- 

 men, most prominent in the South and on the Pacific Coast, to cheapen their 

 work and put it under system in ways similar to those by which other impor- 

 tant lines of production have long been managed by engineers. 



Here indeed is believed to be an indication of the way in which forest 

 schools may greatly help themselves and at the same time powerfully serve 

 the present and future needs of the country. With increasing values of land 

 and timber and the growing complication of lumbering operations, the helter- 

 skelter methods of earlier times in the lumber business are no longer econom- 

 ically sound. Lumbermen realize this, are studying and systematizing their 

 operations and are ready to revise them on any lines that are economically 

 and financially sound. To do this work is calling yearly for men of larger 

 capacity and better intellectual equipment to serve as expert cruisers, logging 

 engineers and managers of plants and concerns. Here is the opportunity of 

 the schools — to supply men of fit training for this important work who have 

 an insight into the principles of forestry as well. Business will eagerly wel- 

 come such men for what they can do now, and when they have proved their 

 ca])acity and judgment in lines that are familiar will give them freedom also 

 in lines which are new. Such work as this will require sturdy, calculating 

 men with no sentiment about them, and the work itself will hardly be recog- 

 nized as forestry by some who in the past have been arbiters of opinion; but 

 forestry it is in our circumstance and time. It is not surrender of or dis- 

 loyalty to principles; it is just putting those principles into a form such that 

 in our day and generation they can actually be used. 



To review again, in this branch of the subject — the forest schools as 

 yet have failed to master American lumbering technically; they seem not 

 to have understood its economic necessity and limitations, and they have not 

 sympathized with it as they might. To continue on this line, teaching "for- 

 estry" as they conceive it, which the lumberman may take or leave as he sees 

 fit, is dignified certainly, but is not so co-operative and profitable an attitude 

 as can be conceived. There will always certainly be a field for just this kind 

 of work and fundamental principles will have to be taught even more thor- 

 oughly than they are today. But some, both lumbermen and foresters, who 

 have thought the matter over, think it ought to be supplemented with train- 

 ing for a different purpose and with the weight of instruction changed. They 

 believe that schools well located and well equipped that will furnish a 

 training strong in engineering lines, including a comprehensive view of lum- 

 bering methods, and at the same time, through hard, compact, fundamental 

 teaching, give their students an insight into silvicnltural principles and forest 

 policy, will make their own fortunes and do a great work for the country as 

 well. Their graduates will go into actual business and soon win their way 

 to executive and financial C()mmand. They will organize lumbering work as 

 other lines of production have been organized by engineers, securing great 

 economies thereby. They will introduce conservative, foresighted manage- 

 ment progressively, as it becomes practicable. They will be the best possible 

 safeguard and buffer if ever the time comes when it is necessary to regulate 

 lumbering operations by law. 



