September 8, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



335 



employed in large numbers and at first are, 

 without doubt, more useful than profes- 

 sionally trained men unfamiliar with the 

 locality and conditions when employed at 

 what is ordinarily considered guard or 

 ranger work. From amongst this army of 

 men without professional training, many 

 are later promoted to the position of 

 supervisor and to other places in the higher 

 branches of the service. These promotions 

 are made without further examinations. 

 There is no doubt but that qualities that lie 

 wholly outside of technical efficiency are 

 of fundamental importance in the appoint- 

 ment to the lower places in public forestry 

 and in later promotion. When these other 

 qualities are acceptable, however, appoint- 

 ment and promotion should center upon 

 thorough technical preparation, upon an 

 intimate knowledge of the science of for- 

 estry which can seldom be obtained ex- 

 cept by a series of years of systematic 

 training. Rule-of-thumb methods picked 

 up in the woods seldom prepare a man for 

 justifiable promotion to positions that deal 

 with the organization and orderly develop- 

 ment of forest property. Were this funda- 

 mental distinction between technical train- 

 ing and woods experience adequately ap- 

 preciated in promotion, the college man 

 with technical training could better afford 

 at the outset of his professional career to 

 take his place with ax and saw by the side 

 of his non-technical competitor. 



The largest present field for men imme- 

 diately after completing their professional 

 training is in private work, but here a man 

 must prove his worth before he is given 

 more than a workman's wage. Although 

 four fifths of our forests are privately 

 owned, the economic conditions that control 

 timber prices are such that professionally 

 trained men can rarely be employed under 

 adequate salary, and money can seldom be 

 expended by private owners for the sole 



purpose of employing scientific methods in 

 the production of forest crops. When em- 

 ployed, their work must deal with meth- 

 ods of better and closer utilization rather 

 than forest production. Although this 

 field is unlimited for professionally trained 

 men who are willing to begin at the bottom 

 and offers the highest financial prizes for 

 those having the requisite qualifications, 

 the qualifications based upon full profes- 

 sional training are secondary to other more 

 fundamental ones which combined form 

 business efficiency and business sense. It 

 is bad foresight to train so many men in the 

 scientific production of forest crops that 

 the larger proportion are later forced into 

 farming or various commercial callings. 



Although full professional training is 

 essential in national, state and communal 

 forestry where present expenditures are 

 possible through public appropriations for 

 the organization and orderly development 

 of the forest, I seriously question whether 

 at present it can find adequate scope in 

 private forestry, because the organization 

 and orderly development of the privately 

 owned forest can seldom 'be attempted 

 under present economic conditions. What 

 private forestry in the United States needs 

 is more vocational training and less pro- 

 fessional training. A few instead of many 

 strong professional schools, well equipped 

 for both teaching and research, whose 

 graduates can find adequate scope for their 

 attainments, should rest upon a much 

 broader foundation of public and vocational 

 training in forestry than we have at the 

 present time. It is the duty of these schools 

 to lead in forestry investigation, the pub- 

 lication of technical books on forestry, and 

 the support of technical journals. 



Agriculture and forestry have close kin- 

 ship. They both have to do with the pro- 

 duction, harvesting and marketing of 

 crops grown from the soil. They differ 



