158 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



While at present capital is laying emphasis on tropical experience 

 coupled with a forester's training, it will have to come to accept the 

 forester who has gained his experience in similar classes of work in 

 our own country, because the supply of men with tropical experience 

 is not equal to the demand. 



Capital seeking investm.ent in a tropical forest property often wants 

 to know the agricultural value of the land after the timber is removed. 

 A good forestry education fits a man to answer all the questions in a 

 general way, including agricultural and engineering problems, better 

 than any other one type of trained men. The trained agriculturist 

 would likely know little about the forest or the engineering problems 

 connected with its exploitation. The engineer would be at loss con- 

 cerning the strictly forestry and agricultural problems. The point 

 to be made here is that the forester is better trained to collect all the 

 information essential to the success or failure of the proposition than 

 either of the other type of trained men. In a word the forester is best 

 trained to do this class of pioneer work. In this connection I can do 

 no better than quote the last paragraph of an article written by 

 Matthews,^ Conservator of Forests for British North Borneo. This 

 reads as follows : 



"It is to the trained forester that we must look to do the bulk of 

 the pioneering work which is necessary before any extensive develop- 

 ment of the wild lands of the tropics can take place. This is not yet 

 generally recognized but it will be and, as Sir William Schlich said to 

 the writer in 1914, unless there is much more interest taken by the 

 British in forest education, it is to America that the world will have 

 to. look for m?n to do this work since they are not being trained in 

 sufficient numbers elsewhere." 



A second class of work for the trained forester in the tropics is the 

 seeking of the sources, kinds, and amounts of raw materials of the 

 forests essential to certain industries. Some industries are getting 

 exceedingly anxious concerning their future sources for raw products 

 of various kinds. There are a number of instances where trained 

 foresters have been employed in this service. Some time ago a forester 

 investigated the coastal region of northern South America in search of 

 tanning materials for a prominent leather company. Another forester 

 has recently returned from an exploring expedition in the Quebracho 

 forests of the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay and Northern Argen- 



^ Matthews. D. M. The Trained Forester in the Tropics. Yale Forest School 

 News, Vol. Ill, No. 3, July, 1920, p 36. 



