560 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Forest Service itself was much at fault. Many of the district foresters 

 and supervisors of practical experience have naturally discounted tech- 

 nical training, and have not only not given any real attention to attract- 

 ing men of high quality, but have failed to use the men whom they have 

 more or less accidentally secured. A layman if given a surgeon's 

 scalpel will probably use it to peel an apple. 



There has been in all too many instances just about as intelligent 

 use of the highly skilled or trained technicians as the illustration im- 

 plies. Couple this attitude with inadequate salaries, the isolation, which 

 can, if efforts are made, be obviated or compensated for to some degree, 

 and again refer to the specifications which must be possessed to even 

 aspire to higher positions in the organization, and is there any wonder 

 that there is a diminution? To discount these factors is to deal with 

 only part of the problem. Certainly the Forest Service needs tech- 

 nicians both as administrative officers, executives, and specialists. The 

 certain obvious present conditions must be remedied, however, through- 

 out the Service before it can hope to secure and retain men who will 

 constructively deal with its really big problems, the most important of 

 which is the substitution of timber cropping for timber mining and the 

 laying of a foundation for permanent forest communities through sci- 

 entific forest management, which involves thorough training in the 

 principles of silviculture, forest finance, methods of research, fire pro- 

 tection, wood technology, engineering, and the like. Specialists along 

 each line will have to be used in the process of eliminating the sawdust- 

 pile-shack-town form of forest development and secure for us even- 

 tually not simply the effective administration of the National Forests, 

 but a comprehensive, inclusive. National Forest policy. 



Grazing technicians as specialists and executives should, of course, 

 be used when the problem involved is primarily that of grazing. Here, 

 again, the fundamental necessity of the technically trained man is obvi- 

 ous. The big progress in grazing, aside from the mechanical common- 

 sense adjustments of range allotments, has been the result of scientific, 

 botanical, and economic analyses of the range values, the study of range 

 management, and the like. The necessity for a course in the land laws 

 of the country is greatly overemphasized. This phase of forest admin- 

 istration work is temporary and will be reduced to the minimum shortly, 

 when titles to the land are quieted. At any rate, whenever any technical 

 question arises in this field, whether in private, State, or Government 

 work, the usual process is to consult a legal specialist. 



The training of a forester should equip him in scientific thinking 

 processes, so that he will know how and when to use any kind of spe- 



