FOREWORD 
Public knowledge of the reasons for the existence 
of the United States Forest Service is fairly wide- 
spread and accurate. Conservation—the intelli- 
gent use and development of the resources of our 
National Forests, has worked its way into the list 
of the Nation’s permanent policies. But while most 
people are agreed as to the desirability of the work 
the Forest Service is doing and know in a general 
way what that work is, there exists a surprising lack 
of information as to the actual life and day-to-day 
duties of Service field men: Supervisors and For- 
est Assistants, Rangers and Guards. 
“The Log of a Timber Cruiser’’ is in part an 
attempt to furnish such information—at least in one 
phase of Forest Service activity—by detailing the 
incidents of a six months’ field assignment in the 
mountains of southern New Mexico. If, in addition, 
the reading of this account provides half the enter- 
tainment which the recording of the events as they 
occurred brought, I shall feel very much more than 
pleased. : 
Grateful acknowledgment is due Mr. Gifford 
Pinchot, the former Forester; Mr. Herbert A. Smith, 
Editor of the Forest Service; Mr. Bristow Adams, 
