642 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



results, and they served as valuable stepping-stones in a fuller realiza- 

 tion of the problems. 



As time went on the National Forest area grew rapidly. Adminis- 

 tration problems developed. The need for technical men grew. Forest 

 schools began to multiply. A need for specialists began to show itself 

 in various directions. In short, conditions changed rapidly. We found 

 that protection in all of its phases was the first great administrative 

 problem ; that the practice of silvicultural methods needed to be pre- 

 ceded by extensive scientific studies, and that intensive forest organiza- 

 tion and working plans were a thing of the future. While the training 

 in the forest schools was designed to make all of the graduates special- 

 ists in silviculture and management, conditions actually developing in 

 the field made it necessary to use a very large proportion of them, both 

 in the Service and out of it, in work where silviculture and manage- 

 ment were only of very secondary importance. We must admit that a 

 broad knowledge of silviculture and management has been important 

 at all times, and always will be, for the professional forester. Yet we 

 must also admit, and it has been admitted by technical men time after 

 time, that the training they received in the early days of forest schools 

 for the problems that confronted them immediately upon graduation 

 was very meager indeed. This was, of course, even more serious for 

 those who went directly into the work in forest products, and in vari- 

 ous capacities into the employ of commercial organizations, than for 

 those who took up National Forest work. 



In following up the development of the problems of forestry in this 

 country, it is easy to call to mind men who have gone into special fields 

 of work who were very far from properly trained for those fields. 

 Their knowledge of silviculture and management was useful, but its 

 value was secondary rather than primary. These men were the pio- 

 neers in fire protection, grazing, logging engineering, wood preserva- 

 tion, and a great deal of the work in forest products.^ That they made 

 good was due to their broad general training, and hence their ability to 

 adapt themselves to new conditions, and we might say, just as emphat- 

 ically, to their utter lack of competition. Had there been any high-class 

 technical competition it is doubtful whether these men would have been 

 able to remain in the race. It is not the object of the author to offer 

 this as a criticism against the forest schools as they existed during the 

 days when forestry was infantile. The question, however, arises at the 



^ The author realizes that protection, grazing, etc., are problems of organ- 

 ization, but uses the terms here in reference to technical details of administration. 



