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Circular No. 23 (Revised Edition). j=

United States Department of Agriculture,

BUREAU OF FORESTRY.

SUGGESTIONS TO PROSPECTIVE FOREST STUDENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

The Bureau of Forestry receives a large and increasing number of
/ requests for information upon matters treated in this circular. The
purpose of its publication is to supply this information fully and
promptly. Inquiries from those who think of taking up forestry, which
are not covered by this circular, will always be answered willingly. It
will be understood, however, that, although the Bureau of Forestry
stands ready, so far as it can, to assist and advise the forest student, it
can reasonably go no further than to explain the situation and point
out the means by which a man may prepare himself for it. It can no
more assume the responsibility of deciding for the prospective forest
student whether he will do well to take up forestry than it can predict
to what position he will attain as a forester.

POSITION OF STUDENT ASSISTANT.

The only position in this Bureau open to those whose training in for-
estry is incomplete or has not yet begun is that of Student Assistant.
It has been created in order to afford young men who are thinking
seriously of making forestry their profession, or who have already taken
up its study, an opportunity to become familiar with the methods of
this Bureau in the field and in the office. It must be clearly under-
stood that work as a Student Assistant does not constitute in itself a
stepping-stone to higher positions in the Bureau of Forestry, but forms
a part only of the training useful in fitting a man for the profession of
forestry. It is the policy of the Bureau to retain a man as Student
_ Assistant only long enough for him to gain full advantage from the
opportunities for field and office work which the position affords. He
' will then be expected to continue his training elsewhere.

Student Assistants are, as a rule, appointed for the field season only.
This varies from three to six months or more, according to the locality
and the demands of the work. <A limited number are retained after the
field season closes, in order to assist in the office of the Bureau in
working up data obtained in the field. The eligibility of a Student
Assistant to be continued in the office during the winter depends upon
the quality of his field work and upon the seriousness of his intention
to take up forestry.

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Student Assistants, while in the field, receive $25 per month, with
the payment of their expenses for living and for locai travel. They
are required to defray their traveling expenses to the field from their
homes. If they 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. 8S. Department of Agriculture.
This, when filled in and returned by 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 only. 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. Bodily soundness and

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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 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
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,

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open to college graduates, with a two-years course leading to the degree
of Master of Science in Forestry; and the Biltmore Forest School, in
which the course covers one year. Full information as to the course of
training at these schools, the requirements for entrance, and the cost of
attendance, may be obtained upon application to Prof. Henry S. Graves,
Director, Yale Forest School, New Haven, Conn.; Prof. Filibert Roth,
Professor of Forestry, Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Dr. C. A. Schenck,
Biltmore, N. C.

Undergraduate courses in forestry are given at Harvard University, at
the University of Maine, at the University of Nebraska, and elsewhere.

Vacations, so far as possible, should be spent in the woods. The
student should take advantage of every opportunity to study forest
conditions and to acquaint himself with technical forest methods in
field work. He should also see all he can of lumbering, which, on its
executive side, is closer to forestry than to any other calling. <A good
knowledge of the luamberman’s methods is an essential part of a forester’s
education.

Whenever possible the forest student should supplement his system-
atic studies in this country by six months to a year spent in studying
the effects of forestry upon the forest in Europe. Although European
forest methods can seldom be adopted without modification in this
country, they have been rich in suggestion in the application of prac-
tical forestry to American forests. The American forest student who
puts aside a chance to see forestry in Kurope makes the same mistake
that a medical student would be guilty of who ignored an opportunity
to practice in the best hospitals abroad.

College or university training, followed by a full course at a forest
school and supplemented by work in the woods in this country and in
Europe, may not be possible for every student of forestry. A thorough
preparation for forestry as a profession should, however, include these
lines. of work. How many of them the student may omit and still
retain a fair chance of success in his profession can not be laid down
altogether within hard and fast lines, although study at a forest school
has become essential. A great deal must depend upon a man’s zeal
and industry, and upon his natural fitness for forest, work. On the
other hand, the man who is considering forestry as a profession will do
well to remember that the only sound basis for success in forestry, as
in any other scientific profession, is a thorough and systematic prep-
aration; that no matter how high his natural abilities may be, the
insufficiently trained forester can not hope to compete with those who
have enjoyed full advantages in their preparation; and that in this
country, perhaps more than in any other, forest problems present diffi-
culties which require, above all, a thorough understanding of his work
in the man who undertakes to deal with them.

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THE OPENING FOR FORESTERS.

The best management of the National forest reserves will require the
services of many trained men. The Bureau of Forestry, will require
an increasing number of suitably prepared foresters to supply its needs.
The lack of foresters to care for the forest interests of several States is
already making itself strongly felt. An increasing number of foresters
will be required by private forest owners, as the great holders of timber
lands come to realize more generally that conservative lumbering pays
better than the methods now employed. The Forestry Bureau in the
Philippines offers what is in some ways an unrivaled opportunity to
trained men.

As regards compensation, forestry offers the well-prepared man a fair
living. It is naturally impossible to foretell what will be the pay of
foresters in this country. It is reasonably certain, however, that their
salaries will never be large. Trained foresters in the employ of the
Bureau of Forestry now receive from $720 to $3,500 a year.

GIFFORD PINCHOT,

Forester.
Approved:

JAMES WILSON,
Secretary.

Washington, D. C., March 12, 1904.

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