853 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



the man without training, due to the systematic mental training which 

 a college course usually gives, a thorough study of features of the work, 

 and more or less familiarity, theoretically at least, with the best pro- 

 cesses devised or formulated by the best-trained minds throughout the 

 entire world." 



This tells the whole story ; the college-bred forester compares to the 

 promoted sheepherder exactly as does the man mounted on a race- 

 horse to the man mounted on a pony. Once in a while the pony wins, 

 especially if it has enough start; generally it runs just fast enough to 

 lose. Out of a hundred college-bred engineers eighty win (ten win 

 big) ; out of a hundred unschooled men doing the important work in 

 various lines of engineering not one, on an average, ever becomes an 

 engineer. The rest stay at the job; they make the joints and run the 

 machines ; they are useful ; we need lots of them ; we pay them well ; 

 we respect them ; the world owes them much. But they are not engi- 

 neers and they never will be ; they alone would never develop any line 

 of engineering. 



In recent years the old trade school has been revived in various forms 

 and the correspondence school has attempted to make engineers of this 

 class of working men. Generally, however, their students are not of 

 this class, but are young men who feel that they cannot afford a proper 

 course or are unwilling to spend time and effort. Some of these men 

 do well ; others, of a political make-up, take their diploma and pose as 

 engineers, securing jobs with the smaller towns, etc., usually much to 

 the detriment of their employers. This phase repeats itself in forestry 

 in the graduates of short-course schools and from special schools like 

 the "tree surgeon'' outfits. A good ranger course is a most excellent 

 preparation for the purpose for which it is intended, but its use is 

 limited even more than is the preparation. The effort to standardize 

 education in forestry and other lines by prescribing courses of certain 

 duration and recognized schools is all based on an appreciation of this 

 fact. 



What has been said here of engineering is far more true of forestry. 

 A 6o-foot span steel bridge to the layman looks like a very complex 

 affair and its erection a great feat. But compared to a living thing, 

 such as a horse or tree, this bridge is simplicity itself, and to acquire 

 even a moderate amount of knowledge concerning the tree, its make-up 

 and needs, requires a great deal more study than does the understand- 

 ing of the bridge. In addition, there enters another very important 

 factor, and one which is ordinarily overlooked entirely in these discus- 

 sions. It is the factor of interest. The builder of a bridge has the job, 



