320 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



and supply the knowledge of detail which the agent lacks. 

 This latter system is bad in principle, and rarely leads to 

 satisfactory results. A man who knows his business 

 thoroughly can rarely do himself credit when working under 

 the direction of someone else. If the employment of a 

 forester is necessary at all, it is also necessary that he should 

 carry out the duties for which he is employed, and it is 

 impossible for him to do this unless he has full control over 

 his work, whether this work be purely and simply forestry, 

 or a combination of forestry and something else. 



On many estates the forester's duties are of a more or 

 less indefinite nature, and his staff is often called away at a 

 day's notice to augment the staff or do the work of another 

 department. In such cases it is impossible for him to do 

 his work as it should be done, and it is also extremely 

 difficult for a man whose work is subject to such interruption, 

 to take the interest in it which he ought to do. No doubt, 

 on every estate it is necessary that one department should 

 be dovetailed into another to a greater or less extent, and 

 the forestry department, owing to the wide area over which 

 it works, is more exposed to this dovetailing business than 

 any other. But this is not a sufficient excuse for making it 

 do the odd work of every other department on the estate, or 

 for making the forester an odd man who is expected to obey 

 the beck and call of every head of a department who wants 

 something done in a hurry. Where odd work must be 

 continuously done by the forester's staff, let a certain number 

 of men be told off for such work and no more. When one 

 odd job is finished, let this squad go on to the next, but 

 never augment it by withdrawing men from the legitimate 

 wood staff, or the woods will sooner or later feel the effect of 

 it. Nothing is more convenient for the clerk of works, 

 gardener, or bailiff, to be able to put a hand on two or three 

 of the forester's men at a moment's notice, whenever they are 

 wanted. It saves the necessity for a good deal of forethought 

 and planning on the part of those officials, and the manner in 

 which these sudden calls upon his resources are met by the 

 forester himself is a very fair indication of his value as a 

 forester. If he meets them with an air of amiable resignation, 

 so much the worse for the woods ; but if they call forth 



