Forestry as a Profession 247 



or opportunities. It is sometimes stated as the 

 ideal of a well-informed man, to know something 

 about everything and all about something. This is 

 peculiarly applicable to the well-trained forester. 



To some readers, men who pride themselves 

 upon their practical sense, all this may seem some- 

 what extravagant. They may think that for each 

 particular kind of work a far less comprehensive 

 training is entirely sufficient. From one point of 

 view they are right. To learn the silvicultural op- 

 erations demanded in a given locality requires no 

 university training. Any fairly intelligent woods- 

 man would learn them in a short time, provided 

 somebody taught him. But suppose that this 

 woodsman were transferred to another district 

 where forestal conditions were different. Would 

 he be able to conduct the operations required under 

 the altered circumstances without first being taught 

 again ? Clearly not. The difference is the same 

 as that in a large factory or foundry, where an in- 

 telligent man with practical training at the work- 

 bench may make an excellent foreman ; but the 

 general superintendent of the works, the man who 

 plans and devises, must be an instructed and trained 

 engineer. It is the distinction between the artisan 

 and the professional man. 



Of course, it is emphatically true that mere scho- 

 lastic training, however thorough and broad, does 

 not make the forester, any more than it makes the 

 lawyer or the physician. To native gifts and scho- 

 lastic instruction must be added the training received 



