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Minnesota and Alaska, to fill vacant positions as assistant 
forest rangers on the National Forests. The examinations 
were held at national forest headquarters in all States in 
which national forests are located, except in Arkansas and 
Oklahoma, and lasted two days. 
The positions pay, at entrance, a salary of $1100 per annum. 
Men who enter the national forest work as assistant rangers 
are eligible for promotion to positions as rangers, and later 
to the position of forest supervisor, if they are good enough. 
The latter position pays a salary of from $1600 up, and calls 
both for all-round executive ability and for a certain amount 
of practical knowledge of forestry. Rangers work under the 
forest supervisors, often with a particular district in their 
charge, protecting the forests against fire and trespass, 
handling much of the minor business with forest users, esti- 
mating and scaling timber and enforcing regulations under 
which purchasers of timber are allowed to cut on the na- 
tional forests, building trails, supervising the work of forest 
guards, and on occasion leading forces of temporary em- 
ployes against forest fires too large to be handled by the 
regular national forest force. 
The forest ranger must therefore first of all be an experi- 
enced woodsman. In the words of the little pamphlet which 
the Department of Agriculture sends to persons making in- 
quiry, “Invalids seeking light outdoor employment need not 
apply.” He must be sound-bodied, inured to hardship, able 
to ride, pack, and take care of himself and his horses in the 
woods and mountains, familiar with the region and local 
conditions where he seeks employment, and a resident of 
the State in which he will be appointed. Although the re- 
quirements are largely physical and practical, they include 
both a sufficient education to qualify the ranger to transact 
national forest business intelligently, and knowledge of land 
surveying, mining laws and customs, and the handling of 
range livestock. In the Southwest some knowledge of Span- 
ish is often necessary. 
To secure the right kind of men the examination is largely 
a test of practical capacity to do things. The candidate must 
give a demonstration of his horsemanship, ability to pack, 
knowledge of the use of the compass, and similar matters. 
Other parts of the test are written examinations. Because of 
the desirability of securing, in the new rangers, recruits who 
will prove capable of rising to the higher responsibilities laid 
upon forest supervisors, the tests of educational qualifica- 
tions have been strengthened. Thus the Government is ob- 
taining picked men for the rank and file of its little army of 
employes who administer and promote the proper use of its 
nearly two hundred million acres of national forests. 
