Forest Assistants in Forest Sendee. 401 



to lack of common-sense judgment that have occurred. A man 

 must appreciate the economic limitations which prevent the adop- 

 tion of some technical measures, no matter how desirable they 

 may seem. A frequent mistake in marking or in the details of 

 any timber sale administration is often due to the fact that the 

 Forest Assistant tries to do something which is not possible under 

 the contract. If the contract in reality means that only five seed 

 trees can be retained and the oflficer maiking the timber keeps ten, 

 naturally it leads to a complaint, since the lumberman's rights 

 must be respected. Theory must be adapted to practical con- 

 ditions and its effect on closely related policies thoroughly studied 

 out. The exclusion of sheep from important grazing districts, 

 when it is clear that they are causing damage, must be gradual 

 and so arranged that no undue hardship will be worked on local, 

 interests. Since most of the silvical problems are far from solved, 

 snap judgment is all the more to be avoided. 



Frequently men have been assigned to silvical investigations 

 when they would have done better at engineering or cruising. 

 Perhaps administrative duties have by force of circumstances de- 

 volved upon the silvical expert who cannot handle Rangers. This 

 error in assignment is an administrative mistake that can be and 

 is being corrected by a study of the assignment problem. The 

 result no doubt will be systematic study of new men under the 

 most favorable conditions and will lead to their assignment to 

 the work for which they are best fitted. In case a man is proved 

 to be unsuited to his first job. he should under ordinary circum- 

 stances be given another chance in the line of work to which he is 

 best adapted. 



To succeed in the West — or anywhere, in fact — one must have 

 ■"sand", and must be willing to put up with hardships and dis- 

 comforts. This is easy for the man who really loves the work 

 and the frontier life. Accuracy, energy, and perseverance coupled 

 with an intelligent initiative ought to lead to aggressive construc- 

 tive work. "First acquire knowledge and experience and until 

 then sink your individual views" — as one man puts it. 



There are plenty of places in the Forest Service for the well 

 qualified men ; they can look forward to earning an honest liveli- 

 hood and to a life of interesting and useful service, provided — and 

 there's the rub — they first learn the West and its men. 



