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ness and endurance is 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 prepared 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 opportunity 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 reasonably 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 knowlege of the auxiliary subjects necessary in forestry. Of 
these, the more important are geology, physical geography, min- 
eralogy, chemistry, botany, in particular that branch which deals 
with the anatomy, physiology, 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 New York State 
College of Forestry, which offers an under-graduate course of four 
