Forestry and the Lumber Business. 203 



making it bear its just burden of the expense of government, is 

 one in which the foresters can very properly interest themselves. 



The question nowr arises in your minds as to what there is for 

 the forester to do until that time when conditions are favorable 

 for the adoption of private forestry upon a large scale. The 

 foresters who are looking to the immediate future need not 

 despair, although I am free to confess that the opportunities out- 

 side of State and National work are not as promising as many 

 have doubtless been led to believe. The foresters will find a 

 limited field with the operators who take contracts to cut timber 

 off Government land which require more or less forestry regula- 

 tions. In a short time, the States will demand the same require- 

 ments of those who log timber upon State lands. 



If the young foresters desire to spend a few years in living in 

 the woods, a limited number of men can even now find employ- 

 ment as timber cruisers. As stumpage increases in value, the 

 old-fashioned haphazard methods of estimating timber are found 

 to be unsatisfactory. Lumbermen, especially those operating in 

 white pine, have found that trained foresters can estimate the 

 amount of timber on a given tract of land much more closely 

 than can the old-fashioned cruiser. A trained forester con- 

 sumes considerably more time in estimating timber than does the 

 old time woodsman because he calipers trees, but his increased 

 accuracy is worth far more than the difference in cost. The 

 forester who seeks employment with lumber companies must be 

 skilled in work of this kind, and the time is not far away when 

 those dealing in timber lands will require that the estimates 

 of standing timber be made in a careful and scientific manner, to 

 include accurate map work and detailed reports of topography, 

 species, and the general physical conditions of the country 

 covered. This work requires men of good physique who are 

 willing to live in the woods for months at a time. It is about the 

 only branch of the lumber industry, as it is at present conducted, 

 in which the scientific knowledge of the forester can be especially 

 serviceable. There are other departments of the business in 

 which the forester can engage, but they will only make a partial 

 demand for his knowledge of forestry. There are but a very 

 few lumbering operations of any size in this country to-day, out- 

 side of New England, where trees are logged with an idea of 

 obtaining a second crop. In some regions a greater precaution 



