THE FRUIT TREES OF PICARDY 



269 



plane parts, and numerous other wooden articles — will be 

 needed by our armies. The specifications must be drawn 

 up, the proper woods selected, the proper methods and 

 machinery for working them up chosen, and the actual 

 work done. All this must be done quickly, and, to insure 

 satisfactory results, must be supervised by experts. 



An example shows how important a seemingly insig- 

 nificant point may be. Early in the war a British buyer 

 placed a contract here for more than a million rifles. 

 Specifications called for seasoned walnut stocks. Such 

 walnut could not be found, so the contractor turned to 

 green walnut and began to make the rifles. But the green 

 wood cracked and checked to such an extent that there 

 was a ruinous loss of sixty per cent of the wood. It 

 became imperative to kiln-dry the green walnut. The 

 Forest Service expert was called in and by control of kiln 

 conditions overcame the trouble and reduced the loss 

 from sixty to one per cent. This Government will need 

 hundreds of thousands of rifles. It will not even be able 

 to secure green walnut, except at prohibitive cost. And 

 so the new specifications will call, in all probability, for 

 birch and before the birch can be used without excess 

 waste there will be another problem for the Forest Service 

 expert to solve. Similar problems will arise in the selec- 

 tion of suitable substitutes for the white pine planks, now 

 unobtainable but since time immemorial considered the 

 only wood for pontoons, and in supplying the demand for 

 suitable woods in the manufacture of aeroplane propellers, 

 now that the woods considered essential are becoming 

 scarce to the point of exhaustion. 



With the double purpose of best serving the nation's 

 needs in the war and at the same time furnishing adequate 

 protection for the forests of the West, the Western For- 

 estry and Conservation Association has conducted a 

 "Defense Census of Trained Woodsmen" among forestry 

 men throughout that section. So simple and efficient has 

 the plan proved itself that most of the state and pr vate 

 forest organizations throughout the country have taken it 

 up. The result is that the nation has a splendid body of 

 trained men ready to do the things which they can do 

 best. Their abilities are not lost through random enlist- 

 ment in military organizations not able to make the fullest 

 use of them but are concentrated for special service, the 

 demands of which they best meet. 



With the dangers of the forest fire season directly 

 ahead, it is also essential to know how many and what 

 men wiU be available for forest protection work. Under 

 certain circumstances forest organization men can be most 

 useful where they are, not only in fire prevention but in 

 guarding bridges, rail and telegraph Unes and the like. 

 In lumbering operations, particularly, are many foremen, 

 engineers, woodsmen, and the like who are qualified for 

 special service and who might be more needed in the woods 

 than in a military organization. 



The nature of their work places the majority of forest 

 organization men ahead of the ordinary civilian in ability 

 to care for themselves under adverse circumstances, to 

 meet conditions with initiative, to handle men, horses, 

 and supplies, and in other ways to give a good account of 

 themselves under war conditions with the minimum of 



officering and care such as must be given ordinary recruits. 

 They also know much of organization and discipline. In 

 addition to these fundamentals, most of them have special 

 competence, if not in the accepted work of the soldier, in 

 work no less necessary in military operations, such as 

 mapping and reconnaissance, trail, bridge, and telephone 

 building, signaling, scouting, packing, teaming, auto 

 driving, use of fire arms, feeding and transporting men, 

 etc. Many also have miHtary experience. These quali- 

 fications make these men especially valuable. 



THE FRUIT TREES OF PICARDY 



By Alice Gertrude Field 



Last May they held you captive, 



Sweet orchard-trees of France, 

 Like fearless eyes your buds unclosed 



On desperate mischance, 

 Looking on strife and sick heart-break 



With gentle, steadfast glance. 



The little dark-eyed children 



Looked up and smiled at you. 

 Your gallant branches bloomed in grief, 



Like France, gay, brave and true. 

 Cheered by your snowy burgeoning. 



Her sad folk hoped anew. 



Today your ravished soil is free. 



Slight little trees of France. 

 Your people keep glad festival 



With joyous circumstance. 

 And you, dear comforters, should toss 



In rosy triumph — dance ! 



Your sacrifice was not in vain. 



Brave martyred trees of France, 

 For your avenging countrymen 



Sweep on in stem advance. 

 And through all time your sweet ghosts breathe 



A fragrant Vive la France ! 



ANEW use for wood has been developed in the making 

 of canoes by a new system. The new idea is the 

 stamping out of the finished canoe, from veneer, instead 

 of the old-fashioned manner of building up a canoe from 

 ribs of prepared wood, and the cutting of the thwarts and 

 gunwales, and the covering of the whole with canvas. 



THE New York State College of Forestry has taken up 

 a new line of work, in the opening of a course to 

 teach city forestry, along lines of city forestation on 

 practical lines, arboriculture, park administration and 

 landscape construction. Summer camp work is part of 

 the course, to give the students training in the real out- 

 of-door work of the forest. The forestry school has just 

 issued a technical publication on the hardwood distilla- 

 tion industry in New York, to outline the work being 

 done in this State, which is one of the leading states 

 engaged in this industry. The latest practice in the 

 industry is reviewed as part of the work of assisting in 

 the further development of the industry. 



