OPENING FOR FORESTERS 



The question will naturally be asked: "What are my chances for 

 work, if I take the course in forestry?" The answer to this is not 

 as easy as with regard to some other courses, because forestry, the 

 right use and care of forests, in our country is in its infancy. 



Broadly speaking, we may say that the woodlands of the United 

 States, the field of action of our foresters, cover several hundred 

 million acres, that the greater part is culled, cut and burned over; 

 that even today about eighty million people, with a most extraor 

 dinary and constantly increasing demand for wood, depend upon a 

 judicious use of what there is left of the old forests; and that the 

 most diligent care of the woods is necessary to guard against a 

 serious disturbance in our economic relations, which probably can 

 not be avoided entirely. 



It will require the trained heads and hands of several thousand 

 good men to start the work of improving our woods, and it will re- 

 quire the continuous effort for all time of many thousand more to 

 continue the work successfully. 



Fortunately it may be said that a general awakening to the 

 needs of better treatment of woodlands has taken place. All 

 classes of people are beginning to realize a few simple and im- 

 portant truths: that not all land is plow land; that it is poor busi- 

 ness to destroy a forest and throw away the land when with a 

 little care it might be logged and still leave a valuable forest for 

 future use; that it is wasteful to leave the large areas of non- 

 agricultural lands in a non-productive waste-land condition. 



As a consequence of this awakening, guided and promoted 

 especially by the intelligent and energetic efforts of the United 

 States Forest Service, hundreds of forest owners have of late 

 called for the advice and assistance of men trained in the right use 

 and care of the woods. That this demand for help will increase is 

 certain, and it is reasonable even to believe that quite a rapid in- 

 crease of this demand may be looked for. As it is, there are hun- 

 dreds of estates now in charge of untrained men, who are unable to 

 provide more than mere patrol service, while the service of a 

 trained man would not cost any more and would certainly yield 

 larger returns. 



Besides the owners of estates whose lands are held for various 

 reasons, there are numerous parties engaged in dealing in timber 

 land for the purpose of direct exploitation (lumbering) or for specu- 

 lation, who employ well-paid men as timber-lookers," "estimators," 



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