THE TRAINING OF A FORESTER 



Before we can understand forestry, cer- 

 tain facts about the forest itself must be 

 kept in mind. A forest is not a mere collec- 

 tion of individual trees, just as a city is not 

 a mere collection of unrelated men and 

 women, or a Nation like ours merely a cer- 

 tain number of independent racial groups. 

 A forest, like a city, is a complex commimity 

 with a life of its own. It has a soil and an 

 atmosphere of its own, chemically and physi- 

 cally diflFerent from any other, with plants 

 and shrubs as weU as trees which are peculiar 

 to it. It has a resident population of insects 

 and higher animals entirely distinct from 

 that outside. Most important of all, frt)m 

 the Forester's point of view, the members of 

 the forest live in an exact and intricate sys- 

 tem of competition and mutual assistance, 

 of help or harm, which extends to all the 

 inhabitants of this complicated city of 

 trees. 



14 



