A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 667 



It has been found through systematic check that the civil-service 

 record for junior positions is in the great majority of cases an excellent 

 criterion of what may be expected in the subsequent career of indi- 

 vidual men. Men who show up best in the junior examination almost 

 invariably have a creditable subsequent career. Almost invariably 

 the men who have failed to develop, who have become personnel 

 problems, are those whose civil-service record is unsatisfactory. 



Since it has been necessary, with inadequate numbers of fully 

 trained men available, to employ substantial numbers of men before 

 they are fully trained for research, training on the job has become an 

 essential part of the effort to build up a research organization. That 

 training on the job does not give some of the things that the schools 

 do is fully realized, but if experience is any guide, its possibilities 

 have been far too heavily discounted. Efforts for such training are 

 made as systematic as possible, and include such things as care and 

 diversity in research assignments, special supervision on them, 

 details to other regions, special training for particular classes of 

 work, etc. 



Another move to stimulate the development of the investigative 

 staff has been the discontinuance of year-long isolated headquarters, 

 and location of the experiment station headquarters wherever the 

 circumstances permitted, in direct cooperation with universities. 

 Without doubt this has been a material factor in stimulating and 

 broadening our personnel. 



In recognition of the benefits of advanced college training for 

 research, men who have not had such training have been encouraged 

 at temporary sacrifices to the organization to go back for further 

 training. Of the men in the research organization not yet fully 

 trained a large percentage plan to take advantage of this opportunity 

 at their earliest convenience. 



Another phase of this effort is the temporary summer employment 

 of forest school undergraduates. The number so employed annually 

 already reaches from 75 to 100. The policy is to select only the best 

 men, to develop in these men an interest in research as a carrer, to 

 give them a background of research experience, and in general to 

 make temporary employment one additional means of building up the 

 ablest and best- trained staff available in the profession. 



Practically no men were training for forest research in 1915 because 

 there was little or no promise of a career if they did. The policy of 

 placing public requirements ahead of other considerations in Forest 

 Service research involved the deliberate creation of relatively large 

 numbers of jobs. During each of the 3 years ending with 1932, 

 men for 30 to 50 new positions were sought. The possibility of a 

 career in research has been made as attractive as the limitations in 

 the Government service will permit, as to salary, personal recognition 

 for work done, desirable headquarters for permanent residence, etc. 



As indicated above, the Forest Service demand for men has been 

 one of the factors which within the last decade has revolutionized the 

 situation in the forest schools of the United States equipped to give 

 advanced training. The revolution has gone furthest in silvicultural 

 work, but it has begun in forest economics, range, and other classes 

 of research. Whereas 15 years ago, or even at the close of the war, 

 there probably were not more than 2 or 3 men in the entire United 



