FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 165 



too literally. It is meant, rather, to convey a conception of the underlying scope 

 and purpose of ranger school instruction as distinct from the other kinds of 

 forestry education. 



The General Character of Ranger School Work as Compared With 



Technical Training. 



The art or trade of forestry practice, as here used, includes all of the 

 operations incident to the ownership and utilization of timbered lands. These 

 may or may not include provision for the renewal of forest growth after cutting, 

 without affecting the applicability of the term or the desirability of developing 

 a practical type of training which will turn out skilled men fitted to do the 

 specific woods work required in their own locality. The things to be done vary 

 greatly in different parts of the United States, and there is an equal variation 

 in the methods of doing them which are effective under the specific local con- 

 ditions. The form and objects of ownership, as private, state, and national, 

 introduce further variations into the specific equipment which the graduate of 

 the ranger school should have. 



In many states, ranger schools should aim primarily to train skilled workmen 

 and foremen for the lumbering industry, men who are equipped for land survey- 

 ing, cruising and the layout of logging operations, and who can handle men and 

 teams and machinery in logging work. In other localities the dominant field of 

 employment requires immediate expertness in protective duties, construction of 

 forest improvements or silviculture. Elsewhere forest work must be combined 

 with fish and game culture or with the care of public parks. 



Ranger school instruction should be strongly localized, as far as practicable, 

 it should be identified with the specific needs of the dominant form of forest 

 ownership in each locality; or, indeed, in the case of State and National lands, 

 with the requirements of but one owner. The Mont Alto Forest Academy, which 

 trains men for the State reserves of Pennsylvania, and the Ranger School main- 

 tained by the University of Wisconsin solely for preparing men for work on 

 the reserves of that State, are perhaps the best illustrations of schools which 

 train a limited iiumber of men for a specific occupation whose requirements are 

 definitely known. The service of such a restricted field is not always possible 

 or desirable. Nevertheless, it can be safely stated, as a broad principle, that 

 the requirements of forest industries, or of local forms of public ownership, or 

 other local demands equally specific will furnish the key for developing ranger 

 school instruction, by relatively small local units, along the most effective lines. 



The Requirements for Admittance to Ranger Schools. 



It must be squarely recognized that the purpose of rang«r schools is not 

 to train professional foresters; and that their graduates are to occupy relatively 

 subordinate positions at low salaries. The practical application of this is in 

 (1) the standard of entrance requirements, and (2) the duration of the course, 

 i. e., the expenditure of time and money which is required of students. Adapta- 



