30 Circular 211, Dept. of Agriculture 
of timber sales, grazing, and free use and special use. 
They also help to build roads, trails, bridges, telephone 
lines, and other permanent improvements on the 
forests. Physical soundness and endurance are essen- 
tial on account of the heavy labor and exposure in- 
volved in such work as building improvements and 
fighting fire. The forest ranger must also know how 
to pack supplies and find food for himself and his horse 
in a country where it is often scarce. On the Alaska 
national forests travel is almost entirely by water, and 
the ranger must know how to navigate a seagoing 
launch. The position of ranger is filled through a 
civil-service examination, in which applicants are 
rated on the basis of a written test and also according 
to their education, experience, and fitness. 
In addition to the different classes of forest officers 
mentioned, logging engineers, lumbermen, scalers, and 
planting assistants are employed on the forests in 
the work of timber appraisal, eruising, scaling, and 
forest planting. Like all other permanent employees, 
they are appointed only after a civil-service examina- 
tion. 
Forest guards are temporary employees appointed 
during the seasons of greatest fire danger. 
On July 1, 1926, the force employed by the Forest 
Service numbered 4,958. Of these, about 4,098 were 
employed upon the national forests as supervisors, 
assistant supervisors, rangers, guards, etc., and 860 were 
engaged in administrative, scientific, and clerical work 
at the Washington and district headquarters, the Forest 
Products Laboratory, and the forest and grazing experi- 
ment stations. 
FOREST OFFICERS AND THE PUBLIC 
Whoever wishes to make any use of the resources 
of the national forests for which a permit is required 
should consult the nearest forest officer. Supervisors, 
rangers, and other forest officers carry out the ad- 
ministrative policy prescribed for the national forests 
by Congress, as embodied in the regulations made by