254 North American Forests and Forestry 



required of the forester ; soon, indeed, the novice 

 will discover the difference between camping in 

 the woods for recreation and working in them. 

 But then, the outdoor life and intimacy with na- 

 ture, of which this work requires so much, will in 

 itself be a pleeisure to not a few. One chief ad- 

 vantage which the American forester will have for 

 some time to come over the members of other pro- 

 fessions, as well as his brethren in Europe, is that 

 his is pioneer work. He is called upon to lay the 

 foundations on which future generations will build. 

 That is a fearful responsibility, for the way in 

 which each forester of the next twenty-five years 

 will do his duty is bound to be of immeasurable 

 influence upon the future destiny of the American 

 people. But it is also an opportunity such as does 

 not often come to a body of workers. Grave re- 

 sponsibilities are of themselves powerful attrac- 

 tions to strong men. 



Let us hope, in behalf of the welfare of our 

 country and nation, that, as the initial decades of 

 the new century shall make more and more appar- 

 ent the crying need for improvement in the treat- 

 ment of this great natural foundation of our life as 

 a people, there will arise a class of men able to 

 perform the tasks that will be thrust upon them. 

 Those tasks will call for the services of the highest 

 type of American manhood. W^ will need men 

 capable of attending to the smallest detail as well 

 as grasping the vast relations of their work with 

 the highest interests of mankind. No pygmy men 



