The Forester and His Work 103 



has a Deputy Supervisor and a Forest Assistant, 

 The assistant is occupied almost exclusively with 

 technical matters. He concerns himself with the 

 experiments in tree-growing which are so import- 

 ant in the service work. 



Many trees mature so slowly and attain such 

 great age that the lifetime of one generation 

 of men is not long enough for useful experiments 

 with them. Such tests must be carried on by the 

 nation. 



Next in rank below the supervisor, his deputy, 

 and his assistant, come the Rangers. These men 

 live in the forests, usually in lonely spots far from 

 any town or village. A ranger's work is not a 

 soft snap — it is the hardest kind of physical 

 labor. He must be able to care for himself and 

 his horse under all sorts of trying conditions, and 

 to ride over rough country all day, and perhaps 

 all night too. He must know how to build cabins 

 and put up telephone lines, how to pack, shoot, 

 and fight fire without losing his head. He must 

 be familiar with lumbering, sawmilling, the han- 

 dling of live stock, the mining laws, the land laws. 

 He has to buy his own outfit, and this means the 

 outlay of about five hundred dollars. It must 

 include three or four horses, a saddle for his own 

 use, a pack saddle, and a number of other neces- 

 saries. The government, however, builds him his 

 forest cabin, and provides fences and pasture for 

 his stock. 



