The following letter concerning the care taken of Instru-, 
ments by members of the Forest Service has been received from, 
the Forester. 'Jile it is felt thut injuries to field equip- 
ment is sometimes unwvoidable yet in many cases it seems to be 
done -o carelessness: 
00                                        October 24, 1911 
District 
(Instrument Committee) 
District Porester. 
Dear Sir: 
My attention has been called to the fact that many of 
the field men are not showing proper care either in the hand- 
ling or shipment of b&.rometers, compasses, transits and other 
costly instruments. .7e have been inclined to be somewhat 
liberal in issuing instruments of all kinds, realizing that 
it has been necessary to train & large number of men alon- 
these lines, and it is extremely gratifying to know that the 
efficiency of the men has greatly increased, and that on the 
whole the expenditures for instruments have been fully justified. 
However, the cases of maltreatment of instruments have recently 
become so numerous, and some of them are so flagrant and un- 
Justifiable, that I must request you to make it clear to all 
Forest Officers in your District that carelessness in these 
matters cannot be continued. 
It is expected that any instrument might be accidentally 
injured, even when in the custody of careful and experienced men, 
but trdnsits have been returned from the field showin- thet the 
men were utterly incapable of handling such high-priced instru- 
ments. Screw threads have been stripped as if E monkey--wrench 
had been used; cress hairs and adjusting pins have been ruined, 
and all sorts of damage done to instruments which would not have 
occasioned by simply falling, - the most common means of injuring' 
in careful handling. On more than one occasion transits have 
been shipped, loose in a box, without packing, i.nd have been 
received with plates and standards bent or strained. 
It was thought that the standard compass was practical- 
ly fool-proof, but many of them have been damaged by careless 
handling. Portunately these instruments ctn be put in order at 
comparatively slight expense. Barometers have been treated 
shamefully. W.hen these instruments were tested and repaired in 
the 'ashinton office, it was not uncommon to find that the 
mechanism had been tampered with, that the fine adjusting screws 
had been moved, and in not a few cases the custodian had en-