THE LIFE OF A FORESTER 81 



rience as useless or dangerons as in forestry. Most 

 schools require a large amount of laboratory and field 

 work and many institutions are now insisting that 

 at least one summer vacation shall be given over to 

 three months of practical work in a field camp under 

 the supervision of instructors. Here additional ex- 

 perience in surveying, the running of old boundary 

 lines, timber cruising and map-making on a large 

 scale are obtained. It goes without saying that the 

 better the practical training the more valuable will 

 the student be to his employer. After five or six 

 years of thorough training in college the young forester 

 is ready to try his wings, but he should consider him- 

 self no more than an apprentice, familiar with his tools 

 but by no means an expert. Several years of experience 

 with gradually increasing responsibility are necessary 

 before he can really consider himself a forester. 



Several lines of work are open to the forestry grad- 

 uate at the present time. In the past the National 

 Forest Service has been the chief employer of technical 

 foresters but at present this demand is decreasing and 

 other openings are appearing with lumber companies, 

 railroads, estate owners, State forest departments, etc. 

 Whichever line of work is chosen, the possibilities ahead 

 should be carefully investigated and a man with real 

 talent for a certain line of work should specialize along 

 that line, for the day of the specialist in forestry has 

 arrived. 



Men fond of research can specialize in problems deal- 

 ing with the life habits of trees, forest entomology,, 

 the study of insects attacking the forest, or the chem- 

 istry of forest products, etc. Men interested in the 

 commercial end may take up paper-making or fit them- 

 selves to be expert lumber salesmen, while those fond 



