endurance are absolutely essential for those who take up the work of a 

 Student Assistant. Work in the woods differs profoundly from camp 

 life as it is usually understood. A Student Assistant must be pre- 

 pared to combine severe mental work with severe bodily labor under 

 conditions which make each one peculiarly trying. 



Those appointed to the position of Student Assistant in this Bureau 

 should realize fully in the beginning that they will receive no formal 

 instruction in forestry. They are not attending a summer school, but 

 are taking a salaried position, the duties of which they will be rigidly 

 required to perform. Student Assistants in the field are placed under 

 the supervision of trained foresters in the execution of technical forest 

 work. The head of the party is at all times willing, in so far as it does 

 not interfere with his own duties, to explain matters to the men under 

 his charge and to suggest and further lines of individual study. He has, 

 however, no time to deliver lectures nor to give formal instruction of 

 any kind. The Student Assistant has in his daily work abundant oppor- 

 tunity to learn ; whether he makes the most of it rests with him. 



POSITION OF FIELD ASSISTANT. 



The position in this Bureau open to trained foresters is that of Field 

 Assistant. It carries a salary of from $720 to $1,000 a year in the 

 beginning, with the payment of all living and traveling expenses 

 incident to field work. Field Assistants generally spend about six 

 months of the year in the field ; the other six months are spent in the 

 preparation of reports in Washington. The position entails a severe 

 technical examination under the U. S. Civil Service Commission, which 

 no man may reasonabhy expect to pass unless he has been thoroughly 

 trained in forestry. 



PREPARATION FOR FORESTRY. 



The preparation for forestry as a profession may best begin with a 

 college or university course, in which the student should acquire some 

 knowledge of the auxiliary subjects necessary in forestry. Of these, the 

 more important are geology, physical geography, mineralogy, chemistry, 

 botany, in particular that branch which deals with the anatomy, physi- 

 ology, and life history of plants, and pure and applied mathematics, 

 including a practical understanding of the principles of surveying. The 

 student who, in his college course, can include physics, meteorology, 

 and political economy will be the better equipped to take up his 

 technical forest studies. 



Graduation at a college or university should be followed by a full 

 course at a school of instruction in professional forestry, of which there 

 are now three in this country. These are the Yale Forest School, open 

 to college graduates, with a two-years course leading to the degree of 

 Master of Forestry ; the forest school of the University of Michigan, 



