Early Foresters

Clue #1

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST RANGER EXAMINATION
OCTOBER, 1925

GENERAL

A good 1,100-pound saddle horse doing average work requires_____ pounds of oats per day.

An 800-pound pack mule will in an emergency, without injury, carry _____ pounds for 5 miles over trails with slopes not exceeding 20 per cent.

FIRE
As a ranger you find a fire burning in the woods in old timber with little undergrowth, but considerable leaves and duff and some grass. What tool would you prefer to put it out with, provided only one were allowed? ______________________________   

FORESTRY
Of the following species, check the one which grows readily on hillsides or flats away from streams or wet places:   _____ Cottonwood  ______Bald cypress _____ Pine _____ Willow.  

WOOD
The most durable fence posts are made from  _____ pine, _____ oak, _____ cedar, _____ aspen.

LUMBERING
A tree which has the following dimensions -- small end, least diameter 8.2 inches, greatest 9.4 inches; large end, least diameter 10.2 inches, greatest 11.6 inches -- should be scaled as a _____ -inch log.  

GRAZING
A lamb going onto range three weeks after lambing should gain ______ pounds in 60 days on good open grass and weed range.

LANDS
A field 10 chains wide and 80 chains long contains ___acres.

For access to the complete exam please see:
Forest Ranger Exam

Clue #2

The 1938 New Dictionary defined forestry as “ The art or science of forming or cultivating trees.”  The 1911 Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English defined forester as “An officer in charge of a forest, or growing timber.”  

We're all pals together,
Comrades, birds of a feather
Rootin' pals, tootin' pals,
Ridin' pals, fightin' pals.
In rain or sunshine.
Pals!  Say there brother,
Pull for each other --
Always play the game, fight the flame
For we all belong to the Forest Rangers
Man to man.

--Service Bulletin, vol. 16, no. 23, June 6, 1932  

Clue #4

Walter Field, assistant forester (right) and Chris Hansen, one of the marking crew, measuring the diameters of trees and calculating the volume of the stand, in order to determine which trees there shall be cut. [Weyerhauser Sales Co. photo], Forest History Society collection.