THE AMERICAN FORESTER AT WORK. 



A NEWCOMER IN OUR NATIONAL LIFE WHO 

 HAS ONE OF THE MOST VITAL INTERNAL 

 PROBLEMS OF THE COUNTRY TO SOLVE. 



BY 



ROBERT V. R. REYNOLDS. 



THE forester is a newcomer in the There are at least five qualifications 



field of American workers. Al- which are valuable to a man who takes 



though a number of articles with regard up this profession, intending to make 



to his work have been published from it a thorough success in future years, 



time to time, the majority of people taking into consideration the competi- 



across the country have as yet only tion which is about to commence, 



vague ideas in regard to the qualifica- First. He should be of sound body, 



tions required for satisfactory perform- fair habit of health, and temperate, 



ance of his duties, or what he actually otherwise the exposure, fatigue, and 



does when in the field. privations which he is very likely to 



The need of men thoroughly trained encounter will bring his activities to an 



and competent to handle" the problems of untimely end. 



this new profession has been realized in Second. He should be a college gradu- 



America for only a few years, and it ate. 



has found Americans very meagerly Third. He should be a graduate of a 



prepared to take up the heavy task of forest school. 



properly handling their forests with re- Fourth. He should have the widest 



gard to the necessities of the present possible experience, at least in tem- 



and coming generations. With only one perate regions, including a tour of in- 



or two exceptions, the men who stand spection through the instructive forests 



in the first class today have been trained of Germany and other progressive Euro- 



abroad, and can be counted on the pean countries. 



fingers of both hands. Nekt to them Fifth. He must have good, practical 



in preparation we find perhaps sixty common sense, or all the rest is worth 



men who have had considerable training but little. 



in American schools and several years' While it is not practicable to insist 



experience under the guidance of the upon all these qualifications at present, 



men first mentioned. There are as many there is little doubt that they will some 



more who have had either the training day be much more rigidly demanded 



or the experience, but not both. Finally, than now. In fact, the signs of the times 



there is a number of well-educated men already indicate such a state of affairs, 



who have a smattering of the subject especially in the government service, 



gained through slight experience and A very large majority of American 



reading. Altogether, the really useful foresters are in the government service, 



men count up to little more than 200 in The Bureau of Forestry of the U. S. 



the states and the Philippines. Department of Agriculture has been the 



The requirements are severe. As in training school which has developed a 

 other kinds of engineering, a man may great many useful men by the drill of 

 do good work in the schools and be practical work. The forest schools re- 

 worth very little until he has had expe- cently established have contributed 

 rience, or else upon taking up practical much to the personnel of the Bureau, 

 work he may prove to be lacking in the but can not give that final test of actual 

 requisite push or stamina, or those es- service which alone can determine a 

 sential qualities which alone can put man's value and make him efficient and 

 theory into practice. self-reliant. 



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