Student Assistants, while in the field, receive $25 per month, with 

 the pa3 T ment of their expenses for living and for local travel. They 

 are required to defray then traveling expenses to the field from their 

 homes. If thej T take up work in the office at the close of the field 

 season, the cost of the journey from the field" to Washington is borne 

 by the Bureau. Those Student Assistants whose services are desired 

 in the office during the winter are assigned to duty as Assistant Forest 

 Experts, and are paid at the rate of $40 per month while working in 

 Washington, but are reduced to $25 per month when assigned to a field 

 party. 



An application blank for the position of Student Assistant is fur- 

 nished on request by the Forester, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 This, when filled in and returned bj T the -applicant, is filed for consid- 

 eration when the appointment of Student Assistants for the field season 

 is taken up. The fitness of the applicant for appointment is judged 

 from his answers to the questions upon the blank. The two main con- 

 ditions upon which his appointment depends are that he has either 

 definitely decided to make forestry his profession, or is at least consid- 

 ering it seriously, and that in age, physical condition, and general 

 training he is well equipped for the duties of Student Assistant, and is 

 fitted to profit by his work. Men, therefore, who have already begun 

 the study of forestry, either at a forest school or elsewhere, and who are 

 in other respects well qualified, stand the best chance of appointment. 

 In the same way, college graduates take precedence of undergraduates, 

 and undergraduates of those who have had school training onty. Men 

 entirely without college training are appointed to the position of Stu- 

 dent Assistant only when they are exceptionally well fitted for work in 

 the woods. The number of applicants from students of forest schools 

 and from college men has, so far, generally exceeded the number of 

 appointments to be made, and it is probable that the excess will grow 

 steadily larger. The likelihood, therefore, of the appointment of men 

 who are not or have not been thoroughly trained is small, since the first 

 claim to the position open goes by right to the men who in general 

 training are best prepared to take up the technical work incident to a 

 scientific profession. 



The field work required of Student Assistants is severe, monotonous, 

 and often entails some hardship. Student Assistants in the field usu- 

 ally live in camp and are required to keep lumbermen's hours. Their 

 work consists chiefly in "valuation surveys," or measurements of the 

 standing timber upon given areas, and in "stem analyses," or meas- 

 urements of contents and rate of growth made upon felled trees. 



Cheerful obedience to orders is required of all Student Assistants. 

 Laziness or discontent is fatal to camp discipline and to effective work. 

 No Student Assistant is retained who proves physically unfit for his 

 duties or who shows a desire to shirk them. Bodil}' soundness and 





