398 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



LUMBER FOR AN ARMY 

 CANTONMENT 



THIS is the story of the use of lumber in an army 

 cantonment, and of the manner in which the 

 American Logging Camp has been copied for 

 regular army uses, in the building of quarters for the 

 Reserve Ofifiicers* Training Camps. When the letters 

 R.O.T.C. are seen, this is the interpretation. There are 

 two camps at Fort .Sheridan, each of 2500 men, roughly, 

 one camp for Illinois and one for Wisconsin and Michi- 

 gan combined. Each camp is organized in fifteen com- 

 panies of about 160 men. Wisconsin and Michigan 

 are in permanent barracks except for four companies 

 which, with the Illinois regiment, are quartered in canton- 

 ments on the south side of the reservation. There are 

 quarters for two emergency companies with the four 

 Wisconsin-AIichigan companies, making a total of twenty- 

 one companies quartered in the newly-erected wooden 

 cantonments. 



The quarters for each company are four buildings, 

 placed end to end with a twenty-foot space between each. 

 On the south is the mess hall, with a kitchen and two tables 

 the length of the building, a la lumber camp, bench 

 seats on each side of each table. The next two build- 

 ings are the quarters, with cots in each, for eighty men. 

 North of these two is a bathhouse. 



The speed of construction of the camp was notable, 

 and a most striking evidence of the ability of the typical 

 American business man to meet emergencies. The con- 

 tract for the construction of the buildings was awarded 

 to the Sumner Sollitt Company, Chicago, on Saturday 

 evening, April 28. About noon on Sunday, April 29, the 

 Edward Hines Lumber Company, of Chicago, received 

 the order for the material, amounting to a total of some 

 1,400,000 feet. During the afternoon 5 auto-truck loads 

 of lumber were dispatched to Fort Sheridan to provide 

 quarters for the working force engaged on the job. At 

 5 o'clock in the evening a train of 50 empty cars was on 

 track in the yards of the lumber company. The entire 

 train was loaded with the 1,400,000 feet on April 30 out 

 of the stock of Northern, Southern and Western lumber 

 carried on hand. The contract called for all dressed 

 lumber. The most remarkable part of the operation, 

 therefore, was that some 400.000 feet of the shipment 

 was run through the planing mills of the lumber com- 

 pany, as well as being loaded on the cars in the same day. 

 The Chicago and North Western Railroad delivered 

 the trainload of lumber at Fort Sheridan on Tuesday 

 morning, Alay 1. The Sumner Sollitt Company had its 

 construction force on the ground e(piippcd with gasoline 

 saws and all other de\ices for quick work. Ohio National 

 Guard Engineers staked out the comjiany streets and 

 buildings. The job was finished on May 10, in just ten 

 working days, using only one shift of men per day. The 

 largest number of men employed on the job at one time 

 was 785. Here is what they built coni])lete, ready for 

 occupancy : 



42 barracks, 20 x 126 feet each. 



21 mess buildings, 20 x 110 feet each, equipped with 

 tables and benches built in regular logging camp style. 



21 lavator}' buildings, 16 x 63 feet, equipped with 

 toilets, shower baths, etc. 



1 postal exchange building, 20 x 30 feet. 



1 telephone exchange building, 20 x 33 feet. 



This is the story of one of the camps where officers 

 will be trained for the new army and is duplicated in 

 many other camps throughout the country, as there are 

 fifteen reserve officer training camps in the country, 

 requiring quarters for 35,000 prospective officers. The 

 regular permanent barracks do not begin to provide room 

 for all these men. This story of the Fort Sheridan camp 

 is that of all other camps where cantonments are being 

 built, and will be duplicated on a larger scale to provide 

 quarters for the new army of 500,000 men called out 

 September 1. 



OAK TREE FOUNTAIN 

 By H. E. Zimmerman 

 ^ROM the picture one would judge that this drink- 

 ing fountain at Mount Lowe, California, has 

 i t s source of 

 supply in the heart 

 of an oak tree. 

 Some years ago 

 there was a cavity in 

 the heart of the tree. 

 A hole was bored 

 through to the cavity 

 and a water pipe 

 from the mountain 

 stream connected, 

 as shown in the il- 

 lustration. Later, 

 modern tree doctors 

 filled the cavity, and 

 now the bark has 

 grown over, com- 

 pletely hiding all 

 traces of the ojiera- 

 tiiin. Moving - pic- 

 ture companies have 

 used the fountain in 

 tilms, depicting the 

 (|uack doctor and his wonderful health restorer, "The 

 elixir of life, or the blood of the oak." 



T> EPORTS compiled by the paving block bureau of the 

 *■ Southern Pine Association show that the wooden 

 block, properly creosoted, is rapidly becoming the vogue 

 all over the country, and popular wherever it has been 

 tried. 



The statistics of production by the redwood manu- 

 facturers of California show a material increase for 1916, 

 as compared with 1915, but considerably smaller than 

 several recent years. 



