106 Our Field and Forest Trees 



Within the past fifteen years forestry education 

 has so developed in the United States that today 

 the student can choose among many and various 

 courses, long or short, specialized or compre- 

 hensive. 



He can devote four years to laboratory and 

 microscopic work, learning to diagnose and cure 

 tree diseases, and acquiring knowledge of the 

 chemistry of plant life ; or he can take a ten-days' 

 course of outdoor tree study in a summer school; 

 and, looking down the long list of institutions 

 offering some training in forestry, he can choose 

 or refuse almost any variant between these 

 extremes. 



The student who is working for a higher posi- 

 tion in the forest service, and hence taking a full 

 course in forestry, is advised to spend his vaca- 

 tions, as far as possible, in the woods. He should 

 see all he can of lumbering, for that is the trade 

 which most closely touches his profession. 



A young forester, with his spurs to win, may 

 begin work as forest assistant — if he can pass 

 the service technical examination under the United 

 States Civil Service Commission. As forest assist- 

 ant he gets a salary of eleven hundred dollars a 

 year, and, while he is doing actual field work, his 

 traveling and living expenses are paid. For two 

 years he is on probation and Is assigned much 

 work out in the open with the rangers. After 

 these test years. If he " makes good," he may 



