206 JOURNAL OF FORIiSTRY 



the outside public, the most suitable person that could have been found 

 to carry forward the great enterprise upon which it was employed. 



His preparation for this task had been both broad and thorough. 

 He was Mr. Pinchot's first disciple. They had become warm friends 

 while both were undergraduates at Yale; and when Pinchot returned 

 to the United States after having obtained, under the personal direc- 

 tion of Sir Dietrich Brandis, a thorough professional training in Euro- 

 pean schools and forests, where he was the first American to seek 

 such a training, he soon induced Graves to follow in his footsteps. 

 After preliminary work as a graduate student at Harvard in 1893-4, 

 Graves went abroad, matriculating at the University of Munich. On 

 his return to the United States he was associated with Pinchot as a 

 consulting forester in New York, and in other work, including the 

 writing of "The White Pine," which they published in 1896. Th^ 

 following year he made an examination of the Black Hills Forest Re- 

 serve, under appointment as a member of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 and was the discoverer of the Dendroctonus infestation, then in its 

 incipiency. On Pinchot's appointment as Chief of the Division of 

 Forestry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, July 1, 1898, Graves 

 became Assistant Chief of the Division. 



His early work in Washington closed in 1900, with his selection to 

 take charge of the organization of the Yale Forest School. Of his 

 important services to forestry as the director of that school it is un- 

 necessary to speak here. Down to 1907 he was also officially attached 

 in various capacities to the Forest Service ; and he was always in the 

 closest touch with its activities. Thus when he became its Chief he 

 brought to his new task ripened experience as an executive, intimate 

 familiarity with the organization and work of the Service, extensive 

 acquaintance with its personnel, and professional qualifications unex- 

 celled in the United States. 



It was emphatically in response to the call of public duty that he 

 accepted the office of Forester. The situation which he had at once to 

 meet was one of extraordinary difficulty. He had back of him, it is 

 true, a splendid organization, full of enthusiasm and fighting spirit, 

 eager for public service, hardworking, capable, and ready for any sacri- 

 fice. Also, it was an organization accustomed to win, no matter against 

 what odds. The ^'esprit de corps" of the Forest Service was some- 

 thing unique in the Government. But the times called for a some- 

 what different strategy from that of the period through which the 



