480 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



October 



received elsewhere, they manifest an 

 esprit de corps and a devotion to their 

 tasks worthy of the veterans of Val- 

 ley Forge or of the soldiers who fol- 

 lowed the flag of the Man of Destiny. 

 A partial explanation for this mental 

 attitude is found in the degree of au- 

 thority and the opportunity for prac- 

 tical administrative work enjoyed by 

 these men. Rangers and assistant 

 rangers are frequently men who have 

 received training either in the Forest 

 Service or in forest schools. Guards, 

 however, are usually local men who 

 have entered the service temporarily 

 and, later, taken the Civil Service ex- 

 amination and become enrolled as per- 

 manent employees. 



In some respects, the positions on 

 the reserves are disappointing to the 

 men, as many of them had expected 

 situations similar to those of the Ca- 

 nadian mounted police. Instead, the 

 work is hard and trying in the ex- 

 treme. One ranger, for example, 

 finds himself in a region too rough to 

 permit the use of a horse ; yet he must 

 care for the interests of the reserve, 

 not only by visiting its remote limits, 

 but by scaling every log sawed at the 

 mill. Schools are non-existent in this 

 region ; for this and other reasons this 

 man finds it impracticable to bring his 

 family to the reserve. He has earned 

 as high as $115 per month in the Se- 

 cret Service, and probably from $5 to 

 $8 per day and expenses as a guide ; 

 yet he serves the Forest Service for 

 $75 per month. 



The reserve force workers are rap- 

 idly attaining a high degree of effi- 

 ciency. Reserve inspectors, many of 

 whom have had experience in the 

 office of the Forest Service, are train- 

 ing and disciplining the force and 

 bringing it into effective shape. 



Happily, the fire fiend, the most law- 

 less and deadly foe of the forest, is 

 being in a wonderful degree brought 

 under control by the reserve adminis- 

 trators. Prevention is the end most 

 earnestly sought ; with what success 

 may be inferred from Air. Burn's 

 statement that, on the vast majority 

 of reserves, the damage from fire has 

 now been reduced to virtually nothing. 

 The piling of brush by cutters of tim- 

 ber is insisted upon ; in practically all 

 cases the brush thus piled is burned by 

 the reserve people, and under super- 

 vision so careful that the risk of dam- 

 age is reduced practically to zero. 



During recent months 



StSdies ltUral Mr - Albert Gaski11 ' of 

 the Division of Publica- 

 tion and Education, has visited a num- 

 ber of western reserves, in order to lo- 

 cate permanent sample plots on which, 

 through the course of years, the sylvi- 

 cal characteristics of important trees 

 may be accurately studied and record- 

 ed. In this way it is hoped that the 

 knowledge of the sylviculture of these 

 trees, which is at present defective or 

 based upon foreign sources, may be 

 supplemented by the knowledge of 

 American conditions thus recorded. 



Goes to 

 Yale 



Mr. R. C. Bryant, for 

 some time in charge of 

 the co-operative work 

 of the office of Forest Extension, has 

 recently resigned to assist in organiz- 

 ing the work in connection with the 

 chair of practical forestry and lumber- 

 ing, at the Yale Forest School. This 

 chair, it will be remembered, was es- 

 tablished by subscriptions from lead- 

 ing lumbermen throughout the coun- 

 try. 





