58 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



the man who desires to become a forester will naturally ask 

 the question, " What employment can I obtain when my 

 education is completed to warrant this great outlay of time 

 and money?" And under the present condition of things 

 the answer must be, " There is none." 



A nurseryman may find employment, or a landscape 

 gardener, even, to take charge of some public park or pri- 

 vate plantation ; but there is not now in this country a single 

 opening for a trained forester. Therefore, until some occu- 

 pation is guaranteed, there can be no students of forestry, 

 for the demand must first come iu this case to create the 

 supply. 



It is aljsolutely necessary that the estalilishment of a forest 

 school should be preceded by the adoption of a national 

 policy of forest protection and by the appointment of forest 

 commissioners, forest inspectors or a forest guard ; for, until 

 it has been irrevocably determined to preserve and maintain 

 public forests, the forest school would be useless and no 

 student would join it on account of the uncertainty of future 

 legislation. 



The policy being determined upon, it would have to be 

 carried out for the first ten or fifteen years by comparatively 

 inexperienced persons, but, eventually, students trained in 

 the school would be available for administrative positions. 



Private forest schools, however munificently endowed, 

 would bear the same relation to a national school that the 

 private military academies, which have spning up through- 

 out the United States, do to the West Point Academy. 

 Their graduates would not be sure of Government emplo}^- 

 ment and there is no one but the Government, now at least, 

 to employ foresters. 



The forest school should be conducted on precisely the 

 same principles as the United States Military Academy. 

 Students should be accepted on a competitive examination 

 and receive pay or allowance from the Government as pro- 

 vided for the West Point cadets at the present time. The 

 course of study should extend for a term of five to eight 

 years and the students be given, when graduated, a per- 

 manent appointment in the forest service, with opportunity 

 for promotion. In this way and in no other may we expect 



