456 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



riding, straight-shooting lot of men, not only familiar 

 with hardship and the life of the open, but particularly 

 capable of looking out for themselves, by themselves, 





(.Al'TAl.X KLDKEUGE AT WORK 



LayiiiK oiU the camp of the Tenth Reserve Engineers (Forest) on tin- 

 grounds of the American University, WashinRton, D. C. 



a long way from civilization. It was difficult to dis- 

 suade them from jumping into the fracas anyhow. 

 The Mexican crisis passed, but then a bigger thing 

 came along. District foresters wanted to get into it 

 and said so ; forest supervisors likewise, deputy super- 

 visors the same, forest examiners and inspectors, ditto. 

 Some did get into it, via the Officers Reserve, — witness 

 Eldredge. 



Foresters, from the very needs of their work, are 

 red-blooded ; they are used to doing things ; they are 

 accustomed to be where there are hard tasks to per- 

 form; naturally they are patriotic because their job 

 is to look out for the "rocks and rills, the woods and 

 templed hills." But counting only what may be called 

 the least of their impulses, they have usually been 

 where a good deal is going on; they didn't want to 

 be out of the crowd where the most stupendous up- 

 heaval of the world was taking place. This may be no 

 nobler spring of action than the one which prompts a 

 man to go across the street to see a dog-fight, but to 



those who have felt the urge, it was enough. Philos- 

 ophers say fighting is a primal impulse. 



With all these motives, plus the call for the defense 

 of Democracy, the best way to hold the men of the 

 Forest Service together, even though it be in France, 

 was to organize a military unit of foresters. Mr. 

 Graves became a willing convert to the call from the 

 War Department ; the organization of the Forest Regi- 

 ment was undertaken forthwith, and Graves himself 

 was prevailed upon to accept service with it. 



One may ask, what are the foresters to do? 



This can best be answered by a simple enumeration 

 of some of the uses for timber, down to the smallest 

 sticks, demanded by present-day warfare. Out in 

 front of the very front line trenches are the barb wire 

 entanglements stretched on wooden stakes driven into 

 the ground. Three to five-inch round stuff with the 

 bark on will do for these supports. Immediately in 

 front of the trenches themselves, within arms' reach 

 from the firing step, there are other stakes, projecting 

 only a few inches above the ground. In the wall of 

 the trench below them, footholds are cut and the short 

 stakes provide a hand-hold to give ease and speea m 

 climbing out when the order comes to "cross the top" 

 and go forward on a charge. 



A trench is not a simple, deep ditch. It has bas- 

 tions and embrasures. It has advanced areas and re- 

 cesses, all needing supporting timbers. What is ap- 

 parently a slight mound in advance and to one side, 

 is in reality a machine-gun dugout, with the gun so 

 placed as to fire down a line directly in front of the 

 trench itself, and all along the barbed wire. There is 

 a cunningly built porthole, not high from top to bot- 

 tom, but wide, at least at the outer opening, and nar- 

 row at the back or inner opening. Here a machine- 

 gun spurts death fan-wise into the ranks of an attack. 

 The frame work of this opening is made of logs. 



Poles are in great demand, for field telephone ser- 

 vice and for derricks and cranes in handling heavy 

 loads. Bridge timbers are especially necessary, rail- 

 road ties are wanted, wood material for roads, repair 

 lumber for transports, for field buildings and other 

 construction work, all to be got out with the least 

 possible waste and with the minimum damage to the 

 forests. It will all represent a closer utilization of 

 timber than most Americans have ever seen, even the 

 smallest stuff going into fuel, and the tops into leafy 

 screens for batteries. Eldredge and Bryant and the 

 rest of them are getting pretty good practice in the 

 camp construction itself. They have placed the bar- 

 rack buildings at the American University grounds 

 L;omewhat following the contours down the two sides 

 of a slope or slight spur, upon the crest of which the 

 main street lies, with the buildings running back on 

 either side. On one watershed, divided by the spur, 

 are the latrines; on the other watershed are the cook 

 camps and mess buildings. 



Most of the supervisors have directed similar con- 



