COMMENTS OX KXEIPP'S PAPER 557 



such details as leaving lo per cent of the stand uncut, giving John 

 Smith precedence over Bill Jones in the Clear Creek cattle district, or 

 building a trail up Blue Mountain rather than down Black Canyon. As 

 a matter of course, the forester new to the job frequently will find the 

 path to his ideals blocked. Let him, then, readjust himself, creating 

 new ideals, with a better chance of ultimate attainment under the given 

 conditions. By all means, let him continue to dream, for as soon as he 

 stops picturing to himself the future he ceases to be a forester. 



It is needless to argue that the management of human affairs, control 

 of the range, protection against fire, familiarity with land laws, and the 

 tactful handling of personal problems are all of marked and immediate 

 importance. That is self-evident and applies as well to other branches 

 of National Forest administration. I fail, however, to see why such 

 work should be classed as foreign to the forester's make-up, and I 

 venture to say that the forester is precisely the man to handle these 

 problems most efficiently. Are these matters unrelated to forest man- 

 agement? They are all essential parts of forest management and have 

 an important bearing on the profession of forestry. In case the for- 

 ester at the start of his career proves to be weak in the practical details 

 of business administration, he should be kept at the job and forced to 

 master it, notwithstanding the fact that an experienced clerk, a county 

 surveyor, or an intelligent cow-puncher would perhaps make fewer 

 mistakes temporarily. 



For what end have we in view in administering the National Forests ? 

 Control of the range? The building of roads and trails? Mediation in 

 human affairs? The selling of timber? The use of water? The dis- 

 posal of land? The end is not any one of these things by itself ; it is a 

 combination of all of them, and many more, and consists in making 

 the earth yield up its resources just as copiously as possible, and con- 

 tinuously, and for the best permanent good of the body politic. This 

 end will never be achieved unless the various problems of National 

 Forest administration are integrated and the work viewed as a whole. 

 For this trained minds and far-seeing minds are required — minds eager 

 to build new theories when old theories explode. In the very nature 

 of things, foresters should administer the National Forests. No man 

 trained for a profession is thoroughly efficient in that profession until 

 he has served his term knocking against practical conditions. Give the 

 lorest-school graduate a reasonably free rein and put him through the 

 mill at once. 



Before contrasting the work of the man in the field with that of the 

 forester in the office, it is well care full v to consider what each has ac- 



