658 JOURNAL OP FORESTRY 



is the one who keeps his own standards intact, while learning to allow 

 for the weaknesses of others, and who can endure mental deprivations 

 and hardships, not because he never knew anything better, but because 

 he has sufficient mental resource to keep his thoughts occupied in a 

 healthy manner in spite of his surroundings. 



9. Adaptability. — The Forest Service demands men who are adapta- 

 ble. In no other department of Government work are the demands 

 upon one's capacities more varied. The cowpuncher who essays to 

 hold the job of ranger finds himself called on to build barns and trails, 

 organize fire-fighters, mark timber for a sawmill, scale logs, pass upon 

 innumerable special use and claim cases, and get out creditable reports. 

 The technical assistant is plunged into a maze of office and field work 

 involving things he never heard of. The supervisor discovers some new 

 problem every month. 



It is not so much what a man knows when he enters the Service as 

 what he is able to learn that counts. It would be impossible to cram 

 the endless details of administration into the mind of the future em- 

 ployee by any process of schooling, for these things must be absorbed 

 by doing them. Adaptability is the prime requisite for progress, and 

 this means the capacity for absorbing knowledge and the willingness to 

 make the effort. Here, again, the trained mind has all the advantage ; 

 and it is not a miracle that the men who have made the best adminis- 

 trators of grazing are not cowmen, but rank outsiders, some of them 

 from eastern colleges, who brought to the study of the subject a fresh 

 and unbiased mind and habits of systematic thought and observation. 



10. Initiative. — The work of the Forest Service in the field is to a 

 very large degree solitary. The ranger is alone on his domain of from 

 150,000 to 200,000 acres. The harried supervisor is in touch with him 

 only by mail and telephone, with infrequent short inspections. It is up 

 to him to go ahead, plan his own work, and carry it out. The same 

 rule applies with even greater force to the supervisor, upon whose 

 initiative and constructive ability rests the success of his administra- 

 tion. The man who merely "obeys orders" and will work only under 

 the immediate direction of a superior is worthless for this Service. 

 Division of responsibility demands the quality of iniative. Fortunately 

 for the work, this quality is not rare among western men, and the 

 ranger force has set a magnificent standard of achievement. But in- 

 itiative is also demanded in research and in administrative problems 

 beyond the grasp of the ranger. Education stimulates and develops 

 initiative to a remarkable degree, and it is fair to. say that the great 

 bulk of Forest Service policies and achievements along untried lines of 



