THE TRAINING OF A FORESTER 



mainly to informing the public mind upon 

 the importance of forestry, and to building 

 up national and State laws and organiza- 

 tions for the protection of timberlands set 

 aside for the public benefit. The right to be 

 heard with respect by the men who were 

 already in control of the larger part of our 

 total forest wealth had to be won, and has 

 been won. What is more, in the teeth of 

 the bitterest opposition of private special 

 interests, the right of the public to first con- 

 sideration in the protection and development 

 of the forest and of all the resources it con- 

 tains had to be asserted and established. 

 That has now been done. 



In the United States these steps in the 

 movement for the wise use of the forest have 

 been taken mainly in the last dozen or fifteen 

 years, during which the Federal forest or- 

 ganization has grown from an insignificant 

 division of less than a dozen men to the 



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