The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-01
HOW TO BECOME FoREsTERs.
Official Information for Young Me

1 Official Information for Young Men 1 Who Would Follow the Career l ceived by the Bureau of Forestry in Washington for information as to the best way to get training in forestry, and also for information as to the em- ployment by the bureau of young men | ambitious in this direction, that the bu-
 reau has issued a circular on the sub- | ject.
 | For those who have had no training in forestry or those whose training. is 1 incomplete, the bureau has only one kind of work It is that of student as | sistant.
 This is practically a place of helper in field work, and it lasts from three to six months. The wages paid are $25
 month and expenses. The men pay their own way to and from the field. If they are ordered to Washington at the close of the outdoor season to finish up the routine work, the bureau pays the expense.
 To become a student assistant one must write to the United States Forest er department of agriculture, for a.
 blank form of application, Appoint ments depend upon the answers.
 The applicant must make plain that he has already studied forestry or is desirous of doing so for permanent calling So many applications have come to the bureau from college students all ready studying forestry that men en- tirely without preliminary training must be fitted exceptionally for work in the woods to get appointments
 The work of these student assistants is severe. They live in camps and keep the hours of lumbermen, Their chief labor is in valuation surveys, that is, in measuring standing timber or the contents and rate of growth of felled trees.
 It requires strong young men for this labor, and all the instruction that such a. student receives is what he ab- sorbs in his work. The circular says of these student assistants:
 They are not attending a summer
  tfon, the duty of which they will be diligently required to perform. The head of the party is at all times will ing, so far as it does not interfere with his own duties, to explain matters to the men under his charge.
 "He has. moreover, no time to deliver lectures nor to give formal instruction of any kind The studsnt assistant has in his daily work abundant opportun- ity to learn; whether he makes the most of it rests with him"
 The bureaus circular says trained forester should be skilled in geology, geography mineralogy chem istry botany mathematics and the prac- ticaI principles of surveying. It also says that the expert forester should know something of physics, meteor ology and political economy.
 There are three schools of forestry in the country, one at Cornell, one at Yale and one at Biltmore, N. c. The Cornell school requires four years study, the Yale school requires two. The Biltmore school gives instruction of one year without degree. Further details may be secured from those schools.
 As to the future employment of for esters the bureau says it ''is at present. unable to find sufficient number of suitably prepared foresters to supply it's needs' Preparation of working plans for private, state and federal forest lands, forest investigations and tree planting ill many states demand more men than can be supplied at present.
 Holders of timber lands also realize that conservative timbering pays and this enlarges the field of the foresters. The bureau says the profession offers a fair living for a well prepared man, but also says that the ''salaries will never be large It adds that trained foresters now in the bureaus employ receive from s720 to $9,0O0.-New York Sun.