successful
attempt to dismember and turn them over to the special interests who
already control the bulk and the best of our forests. The public has
accepted forestry as necessary to the public welfare, both in the
present and in the future; State forest organizations are springing up;
forestry has won the right to be heard in the business offices as well
as in the conventions of the private owners of forest land; and the
time for the practice of the profession has fully come.

THE WORK OF A FORESTER

What does a Forester do? I will try to answer this question, first, with
reference to the United States Forest Service, and later as to the
numerous other fields of activity which are opening or have already
opened to the trained Forester in the United States.

THE FOREST SERVICE

The United States Forest Service is responsible both for the general
progress of forestry, so far as the United States Government is
concerned, and for the protection and use of the National Forests. These
National Forests now cover an area of one hundred and eighty-seven
million acres, or as much land as is included in all the New England
States, with New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia and West Virginia. The head of the Service, whose official
title is "Forester," is charged with the great task of protecting this
vast area against fire, theft, and other depredations, and of making all
its resources, the wood, water, and grass, the minerals, and the soil,
available and useful to the people of the United States under
regulations which will secure development and prevent destruction or
waste.

The United States Forest Service consists, first, of a protective force
of Forest Guards and Forest Rangers, who spend practically the whole of
their time in the forest; second, of an executive staff of Forest
Supervisors and their assistants, who have immediate charge of the
handling of the National Forests; and third, of an administrative staff
divided between headquarters in Washington and the six local
administrative offices in the West, where the National Forests mainly
lie.

The work of a Forest Ranger is, first of all, to protect the District
committed to his charge against fire. That comes before all else. For
that purpose, the Ranger patrols his District during the seasons when
fires are dangerous, or watches for signs of fire from certain high
points, called fire-lookouts, or both. He keeps the t