THE LIFE OF A FORESTER 87 



Is largely one of forest inspector. He runs out the 

 boundary lines with a compass; he estimates and maps 

 the timber, showing where patches of fire or insect- 

 killed timber are located in order that they may be 

 immediately removed. He lays out the road system 

 for the logging job and selects the camp sites. He 

 estimates the growth of the timber and how much can 

 toe cut annually and forever, or if they are cutting 

 beyond their growth, how long their supply will last. 

 He marks the timber ahead of the choppers, super- 

 vises the piling of brush, enforces close utilization 

 low stumps, and cutting the logs far into the crowns. 

 These are some of the duties likely to fall upon the 

 shoulders of men employed by lumbermen. In some 

 quarters it is claimed that foresters have not been worth 

 their salt to lumbermen in the past. The trouble may 

 have lain between them both. Either the lumberman 

 did not know what he could expect of his technically 

 trained man or the forester may have been slow to 

 develop new lines of work. Many of the paper com- 

 panies of the East are now employing foresters and 

 find that the map system alone, showing the present 

 stand of timber, and the site of previous cuttings, the 

 general topography of their holdings, is worth the 

 salary of the forester for many years. In one instance 

 a forester by locating an insect attack on one of his 

 cruising trips and by insisting that the logging boss 

 cut the infected timber at once, finally succeeded in 

 saving over $100,000 worth of timber and this prompt 

 action prevented a further spread of the pest. 



Upon a private estate a forester's life depends upon 

 circumstances. If it is a large forest area from 

 10,000 acres up, he may have use for his technical 

 training in supervising the logging operation or 



