148 Forestry Quarterly. 



Yearly the demands on the Ranger have increased in variety 

 and degree until now, many are exercising more judgment, and 

 shouldering more responsibility, than did the Forest Supervisor 

 five or six years ago. 



To meet these demands, there are usually but two methods of 

 development: instruction from headquarters, and profiting by 

 past mistakes ; these are cumbersome, inaccurate, and costly in 

 time and money. Or else, systematic teaching in ranger schools 

 may be substituted. One Ranger, after taking a winter course in 

 a Western college, made the statement to me that he had learned 

 more about timber sales and the silviculture governing them, by 

 two months application in class, than he had in two years work on 

 the Forest. He added he could see the mistakes he had made in 

 marking timber, and that his district would look differently now 

 had he obtained his fundamental principles earlier. His is a case 

 of rapid development. If he intelligently puts into practice his 

 conceptions, it will benefit himself and the Forest Service. 



The value of a Ranger Course will, I believe, be appreciated 

 and acknowledged by all in contact with National Forest prob- 

 lems of to-day. 



In regard to the second point, the most logical manner of 

 building up ranger training schools, little has been attempted. 

 Several considerations which must be given weight are the 

 location of the school, the time and duration of the course, 

 subjects of study, the instructor, and last but not least, the policy 

 of the Forest Service towards such schools. 



The various state and agricultural colleges throughout the six 

 Administrative Districts offer certain advantages : i. e. fair 

 proximity to the District Office and the Forests from which 

 Rangers would be drawn, a faculty which could give instruction 

 in allied subjects, and often some equipment at least, along bio- 

 logical and engineering lines. 



A thorough canvass of a class of nearly twenty men who 

 attended a course this past winter showed that three months, 

 January, February, and March, could usually be spared from 

 work, and was not too long to cover the ground which they felt 

 needed to be covered. It also disclosed the rather surprising fact 

 that the men were nearly unanimous in believing that Silvicul- 

 ture, Dendrology, and Timber Physics were of more importance 

 and benefit than Surveying, which one might suppose would ap- 



