216 Forestry Quarterly 



It is significant, when considering expense, to remember how 

 large the district office forces are, but one must remember that 

 many of the men spend much of their time in doing forest work 

 that would otherwise have to be done by the supervisor. In 

 February, 1916, one of the District Offices (typical of other 

 District Offices) numbered 72 officials. Of this number, there 

 were in the office of operation alone, 1 assistant District For- 

 ester in charge, 2 men on fire protection, 1 on improvement, 1 on 

 telephone, 1 on roads, several stenographers or clerks. The dis- 

 trict overhead amounts to 8 per cent and the Washington over- 

 head to roughly 19 per cent, making a total of 27 per cent for 

 overhead supervision. 



One of the other Districts favors a moderate unit for these 

 logical reasons, which present a strong argument: 



"The division into Forests is based primarily on topography 

 and communication. As the methods of communication increase, 

 it might be possible to increase the size of units, but this I rather 

 doubt, since I believe it extremely important from the standpoint 

 of protection to keep the units small enough to prevent the or- 

 ganization becoming unwieldy. An example of increased 

 efficiency due to a smaller unit of organization is well borne 



out in the case of the Forest. This Forest is composed 



of what were formerly parts of the and 



Forests. Before its organization on its present basis the number 

 of Class C fires doing considerable damage in this territory was 

 very high. Since that time, however, the damage has dropped 

 much lower, and the same is the case on the two adjoining 

 Forests. This indicates that considerable efficiency in fire pro- 

 tection is often gained by smaller subdivisions. Aside from 

 topography and communication, the deciding factor is one of 

 business. Here, again, the factor of supervision on the part 

 of the supervising officers is met with. I feel that any saving 

 from reducing the number of supervisors below those we now 

 have would seriously decrease the efficiency of the individual 

 and of the organization as a whole ; neither do I believe that the 

 work of the Forest Service, at least in this District, is such as 

 to lend itself to any considerable amount of specialization. The 

 work of the ranger varies greatly, and any attempt to secure 

 administration through specialists in a difTerent line would lead 

 to endless duplication and greatly decrease the efficiency of the 

 organization as a whole, and greatly increase costs. The time may 

 come when an organization of the kind suggested will be prac- 

 tical, but until it does, the District organization with its corps 

 of specialists available to render assistance to the supervisors 

 along special lines is, in my opinion, indispensable. 



