380 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



The next premise which we have made is that the Forest Service is 

 unreasonable in its demands upon the technical man ; in other words, 

 that the Forest Service expects more from him than it is within the 

 power of the school to give him. Judging from Kneipp's article, the 

 reader might infer that there is no limit to what the Service is expect- 

 ing from the new man in his first ten years out of school. I dare say 

 that there is no forester today, no matter what his position, who lives 

 up to half of the requirements set down by Kneipp. 



While, theoretically, it would be highly desirable to have foresters 

 who possess all these attributes, practically the proposition falls through 

 because of that omnipresent stumbling block — human nature. Men 

 have their likes and dislikes, their hobbies, their inclinations, etc. ; all 

 of us cannot like all jobs equally well nor do them equally well. And I 

 think that most of the officials in the Service recognize these human 

 traits. Therefore I do not believe that the Service is expecting a more 

 diverse education than the school can give. 



The fact is that the job has outgrown both the technical forester and 

 the school. They are trying to catch up, and they are meeting with 

 considerable success. Therefore what ignorance the technical man has 

 displayed in certain matters on the National Forests is due not so much 

 to his own shortcomings as to the inherent difficulties of the new job. 

 He is a pioneer who comes equipped with ideals. When he meets the 

 realities he finds that he must, temporarily, lay aside some of his tools, 

 but still have them handy when circumstances demand their use. He 

 comes equipped with a wood-carver's chisel ; he must lay this aside 

 temporarily and learn the use of the cross-cut saw and the broad ax. 

 As soon as he has cut ofif the corners and excess material he finds his 

 work before him in the rough. He then starts the details with his chisel. 

 At present the crude pioneer, "cross-cut saw and broad-ax" conditions 

 on the National Forests favor the practical woodsmen who have had 

 experience in this kind of work and life; with the advent of more in- 

 tensive forestry, conditions are bound to become the reverse — that is, 

 they will not only favor the technical man, with the wood-carver's 

 chisel, but they will absolutely demand a man of his training and ability. 

 We are passing through a transition stage in which the technical man, 

 in the face of great and many difficulties, is gradually coming into his 

 own. 



One would naturally infer from what I have said about the school 

 and the Service that the fault must therefore lie with the man, namely, 

 that the schools do not get the right kind of man to start with. This is 

 only partly true. 



