it is but natural that higher stand- 

 ards of admission must be expected 

 by those who wish to enter Govern- 

 ment work. If you wish to make a 

 success in your chosen profession, it 

 will be obligatory on you to increase 

 your ability in order to keep pace 

 with the additional numbers. The 

 day is soon coming, when every 

 man who passes the Civil Service 



examination will not, as at presenr, 

 secure a position. I am not fearful 

 for any man who graduates from 

 MICHIGAN, but it is well that we 

 know what we are going up against. 

 Let's let the other Schools furnish 

 the weaklings and keep MICH- 

 IGAN at the head, where she is 

 now. 



FROM A SUPERVISOR. 



How It Feels to be a Forest Assistant 



The feeling produced by being a 

 Forest Assistant is much the same 

 as that experienced by the boy who 

 goes swimming in the afternoon, is 

 thrashed for it in the evening and 

 goes to bed dreaming of the enjoy- 

 ment he will have in swimming 

 tomorrow. You can always figure 

 on a sudden change next week. 

 When you have some disagreeable 

 work you cheer up by thinking that 

 there is smoother going ahead. 

 When you get on the macadamized 

 stuff, you keep the speed down by 

 knowing that it can't last long. As 

 to the percentage of enjoyable and 

 disagreeable, I guess that depends on 

 your forest as well as on yourself. 



It seems that the real pleasure 

 must come from within (there are 

 those who say that it can not very 

 well come from without to a Forest 

 Assistant). If a fellow is not thor- 

 oughly interested and absorbed in 

 his work for the work's sake, it is 

 a miserable life with little compen- 

 sation. If the work is his ideal he 

 needs no other compensation. In 

 spite of sore feet and sick horses 

 there is a satisfaction in sitting on 

 a high peak and thinking that you 

 have some say at least in the hand- 

 ling of all the countrv which you 

 can see around you. That you are 

 helping to grow timber which will 

 some day be put to good use ; to 

 build cradles for your friends' fam- 

 ilies and coffins for those who are 

 not your friends which mav include 

 any who forget they come from 

 Michigan. But there is no satisfac- 

 tion, even though you have a horse 

 which you can catch within two days 

 of the time you wish to use him, 

 and you have saved three dollars 

 from the last check, if you )OOK on 

 the work as drudgery an 1 only do 



it because of the three dollars. 



To keep interested one must 

 observe and plan. For instance, 

 after considerable experimenting I 

 have arrived at the conclusion that 

 imported pire seeds improve the 

 quality of chipmunk fur 21 V 2 per 

 cent. Undoubtedly they will say, 

 "Gut, dat is gut" when they hear 

 that. Often some simple little 

 scheme will save much time and 

 expense if you can only hit upon it. 

 I have found that the placing of a 

 small image of a china cat on each 

 seed spot will keep rodents away. 

 When this loses its effect you can 

 protect the precious area by paint- 

 ing a picture of a microbe on each 

 seed. I have also gained a good 

 deal of enthusiasm in working ur> 

 the cutting plan and the location of 

 saw mill sites for the areas which 

 I have planted. 



There is a tendency for a fellow 

 when he first gets out of college and 

 the sobering influence of remodeling 

 bulletins and writing novelets is 

 removed, to raise the lid and peep 

 forth. This has its disadvantages. It 

 lowers the grade of work, depletes 

 the exchequer and may break some 

 hearts. So I would advise the use 

 of sanity along these lines. 



A 1 ! things considered the life of 

 Forest Assistant is good. It is hard 

 but it is broad. And not the least 

 important is the training and dis- 

 cipline it gives a man, not in for- 

 estry but along general lines. The 

 realization that the welfare of other 

 people and of things depends on you 

 does more good than two readings 

 of Browning's "How to cut trees so 

 they will die." 



But anyway, fun or otherwise, the 

 chances are 5 to 4 that a fellow will 

 live through it. REX KING. 



