Forest Experiment Station. 215 



evident, but it is a fact which is often in danger of being over- 

 looked. Current matters, such as correspondence, accounts, im- 

 provements and maintenance, often demand immediate attention, 

 and the director of the station naturally feels that if such work 

 is not handled promptly it will reflect upon his administrative 

 ability ; but if it should become necessary to sacrifice one for 

 the other I have no hesitancy in saying that the scientific work 

 should take the right of way. 



Organization. The supervision of scientific work is the first 

 duty of the director of a station. Under proper conditions, the 

 individual investigator should require but little supervision once 

 his project and plan of procedure are approved. This is the 

 policy followed in higher institutions of scientific research, such 

 as universities and agricultural experiment stations, but such a 

 system can not at the present time be put into effect in the Forest 

 Service. In the former class of institutions, the scientific staff 

 is made up largely of persons of recognized ability, and when an 

 individual undertakes a problem he is expected to complete it. 

 The great majority of men engaged in scientific work in the For- 

 est Service are new to the Service; they have no record of 

 scientific achievements; and they may be transferred at any 

 time. Under such circumstances it is necessary for the super- 

 vising officer to keep every project under his direction well in 

 hand, first, to prevent costly errors by inexperienced men, and 

 secondly, because it may be necessary at any time to assign the 

 problem to a new man who will be expected to take up the work 

 where his predecessor left it. Under such circumstances, the 

 presence of a directing head who has followed the study from 

 year to year, profiting by the experience of each year's work, is 

 of the greatest importance. 



While more or less supervision is necessary, for the reasons 

 given in the preceding paragraph, individuals who have shown 

 themselves capable of independent research should be given prac- 

 tically free range after the project and plan of procedure have 

 been approved. A system whereby all investigators merely carry 

 out instructions from their superiors will stifle initiative and will 

 develop a corps of clerks instead of scientists. 



Because of the changes in personnel and the employment of 

 more or less inexperienced men, all scientific data should be 

 submitted to the director of the station for inspection at fre- 



