FRENCH FOREST DESTRUCTION 



31 



WAR'S DESOLATION IN A ONCE BEAUTIFUL WOODED VALLEY 



Over this ground, near Verdun. France, has for months swept a storm of shot and shell. Practically every foot of it has been fought 

 over and thousands have died, while where once stood fine trees there remain some gaunt, shattered skeletons, mute monuments to the 

 tremendous struggle. 



in trenches, and forts, sheds, magazines, and barracks of 

 the military zone are needed. 



"What will remain standing tomorrow? 



"Even in the Bois de Boulogne, at the alarm in the 

 beginning of the war, the trees were cut down which might 

 hinder the ' defense ' of three or four ridiculous pallisades. 

 In the Jardin of Foreign Affairs, on the quai d'Orsay, a 

 celebrated tree, venerable and magnificent, was sacrificed 

 to establish a tennis court (15,000 francs) evidently 

 necessary for diplomatic maneuvres. The dryad which 

 protected this place succumbed to the nymphs of the 

 embassy. Down with the trees ! 



"If we do not restore French forests, we shall gain 

 victories and reconquer our provinces in vain. What 

 happened to Nineveh and Babylon will happen to Paris. 

 Civilization cannot flourish in a desert." 



A dispatch from Verdun, France, says; With the close 

 of the war the entire line of trenches in France, extending 

 from Alsace to the Belgium border, may be converted into 

 a sort of national sacred forest, as a permanent tribute to 

 the memory of the French "poilus" who died there 

 defending their national soil. 



A proposition to this effect has just been prepared by 

 the general council of the department of the Meuse, and 

 will soon be submitted to the French government. The 

 plan is to buy the battleground from the farmers. Should 

 this plan be finalh' accepted, future generations, not only 

 of France but of the entire world, would always have the 

 opportimit}^ of \asiting the line of trenches over 600 

 kilometers in length on which the French threw back the 

 tide of German invasion at the battle of the Mame, and 

 which tiU the end of the war will alwa\'s remain the 

 basis of France's military- effort to rid her soil entirely 

 of the enem\-. 



The immediate land through which these long lines of 

 trenches run, together with the battlefields of the Somme, 

 of Artois and of Champagne will, it is believed, never 

 again be rendered cultivatablc. Aside from the deep 

 trenches and bayous, the ground h;is been so pitted with 

 shell holes to a depth vars'ing from a few feet to fifteen 

 feet, and all the upper strata of soil on which fertility- 

 depends so completely wiped out, that little if any use 

 could ever be made of the ground for agricultural pur- 

 ])oses for years to come. 



