FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 177 



law in cooperation with the United States Government, and we pay a man from 

 $1.75 to $8.50 a day. We find that a man's character, his wilhngness to work, 

 etc., are of great deal more importance in this work than his technical training. 

 In other words, I would rather have a man with no forestry training beforehand, 

 who was a good hard worker and would stick to it, than a man who had been 

 at a ranger school but was lazy or did not have ability to meet people. We believe 

 that we can train men in the State Forest Service to do the kind of jobs we want, 

 fully as well as if they attended a ranger school, and they are willing to work for 

 less pay than they would be if they had been to such a school. Of course, this 

 is looking at the whole matter from a selfish standpoint. There undoubte^dly 

 should be some of these schools and fewer technical forest schools than at present, 

 but the course of study should be short. I do not believe that the ordinary man 

 needs to put in, for the amount of salary that he can acquire upon completion, more 

 than six months' work. I believe that he can get enough engineering, timber 

 estimating and practice in planting, thinnings, etc.j to do good work after such a 

 course, provided he was a good man to start with. If he was not a good man, the 

 two years' course would be of no value to him. 



"I think there should be no requirements for admission other than health 

 requirements. The course should extend over not more than six months. The 

 school should be located in the forest and preferably in a forest under organized 

 management. The training should be that of apprenticeship. Men start in with 

 us as patrolmen at, say, $1.75 per day. The training which a man secures the first 

 year makes him worth more the next year, and so on until he can finally be placed 

 on an annual salary. I believe that there is need for a few ranger schools in the 

 United States. One in New England would certainly be sufficient. The training 

 should be local ; that is, there would be no need of taking up with rangers here in 

 New England the dendrology of the Rocky Mountain States, or the methods of 

 lumbering on the Pacific Coast." 



A. F. Hawes. 



"The following is in reply to the list of questions submitted by you in relation 

 to ranger schools : 



1. "The course should include training in the fundamental subjects — mathe- 

 matics, sciences, etc. — as well as in the technical phases of forestry. The scope 

 is large and the general training shothld be thorough, in view of the fact that the 

 ranger's work is of an exceedingly varied character and calls for the exercise of 

 judgment in different aspects of practical forestry, as well as in many other 

 matters such as the administration of his charge with reference to sales, free and 

 special use, trespass, grazing, fire, in the construction of buildings, roads, trails, 

 and telephones, in the classification of lands, agricultural and mineral, and in the 

 care of himself and his horses while in the field. The ranger school should train 

 men for the office of ranger and like positions, for positions as assistants to men 

 engaged in technical work, research, etc., and for such places as do not require 

 the initiative of an expert. 



3. "The course of study in the ranger school should differ from that giving 

 full technical training in that it must lay emphasis in each subject upon the general 

 principles which younger minds can grasp and appreciate, with less attention to 

 exceptions and details. Also relatively more attention should be given to those 

 subjects such as surveying, mensuration, etc., with which the ranger is more likely 

 to be concerned in his work, or the so-called practical subjects. The ranger's 

 duties are largely administrative, and his training should qualify him for a satis- 

 factory discharge of his duties. 



3. "The requirements for admission should be a common school education, 

 such as is generally required for admission to high schools. Less than this would 



