716 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



fact, the whole thing seems very work-a-day and non- 

 military, but then the present business of mankind is war. 

 and this is a very work-a-day war. 



Regarding Belgium a dispatch from Paris says: 

 "It will be a treeless Helgium to which the peo])le of 

 that unfortunate country will return, if its invaders are 

 not driven out before they have com]>leted their work 

 of devastation. Factories have been despoiled of their 

 machinery, every form of ])ro])erty has been retinisi- 

 tioned, and now woods, forests and even individual trees 

 are being cut down wholesale. The wooded heights of 

 the Belgian Ardennes, which used to ])rotect the center 

 of the country from east winds, are rapidly being de- 

 nuded, the tall elms that lined the high roads and canals 

 have been felled, and walnut trees that adorned the gar- 

 dens of the well-to-do in Brussels have not been spared 



"In the early days of the occupation, the Belgian .State 

 Forest Department was allowed to supervise the work of 



felling and see that it was scienlitically conducted, hut 

 after a few months, the Germans took over the direction 

 of the department and observed only one rule — to obtain 

 the greatest amount of wood for military jnirposes in the 

 shortest possible time. 



"The Belgian government has been able to learn de- 

 tails of the work done, such as that 1,000 acres have 

 been cleared in the Hertogenwald (Liege) and felling 

 continues there, the fir ])lantation, 'Fays de Lucy,' the 

 finest in the country, has been completely razed, and the 

 magnificent forest of Soignes, south of Brussels, is 

 rapidly disap])earing. These are only examples of dozens 

 of similar cases which are known, and to this devastation 

 must be added the consimiption of wood by the native 

 population which for three years has been unable to 

 import any and has had to use quantities instead of coal. 



"Serious consequences from every point of view, 

 health, climate and hydrographic. are expected from this 

 widespread destruction of woods and forests, if it con- 

 tinues another vear or two." 



HOW WARFARE TAXES THE FORESTS 



ONE of the big develojmients of the war is the extent 

 to which it has educated American lumbermen to 

 think in mighty figures without visible signs of 

 excitement. Two or three years ago a buyer for a hun- 

 dred million feet of lumber would have thrown the indus- 

 try into a fever and delivery would have been a matter 

 of long negotiation and discussion. Today the lumber 

 trade deals in billions of feet and orders are filled over- 

 night. 



Forest products enter into modern warfare on a tre- 

 mendous scale. Practically everything an army does 

 calls for wood in one form or another. From encani])- 

 ment construction to trench building and from muni- 

 tions to flying machines the forest is an indispensable 

 source of supply and the woodsman an essential ally. 

 Wooden shi[)s and wood alcohol, paper shirts and cellu- 

 lose, chloroform and surgical dressings ; all these and 

 countless other articles necessary to .successful warfare 

 dej)end on the forest for their origin. 



Of the hundreds of millions of feet of lumber re- 

 quired for the building of t]ie encampments for national 

 army and national guard the story has already been told. 

 To this must be added in a vast aggregate the m;iterial.>; 

 used in aviation camps, sujjply depots and the other forms 

 of construction required in pre])aring the United States 

 armed forces for their battle to make the world safe, and 

 the other hundreds of millions of feet used in the building 

 of ships for the emergency fleet. All this material has 

 been produced and delivered in a space of time amaz- 

 ingly short and the current demands are steadily receiv- 

 ing the same priority of attention at the hands of lumber 

 manufacturers and transportation com])anies. 



With a lumber industry already keyed up to high pitch 

 of efficient production the present month brought the 

 announcement of a new source of demand for lumber for 



army uses. This involved the supj)ly of three hundred 

 million feet of southern pine for the erection of portable 

 knock-down houses for the use of American troops in 

 France as barracks and hospitals. This undertaking of 

 itself contemplates immediate lumber requirements half 

 as great as those of the encampment construction and 

 adds new pressure to the demands on the industry. 



The plans of the War Department architects provide 

 for houses to be made up in panels, shipped across tlie 

 sea in knocked down condition and bolted together by the 

 soldiers in France. Co-operation between government 

 and manufacturer was exemplified by important changes 

 in specifications after a conference of the lumber inter- 

 ests with representatives of the War De])artment. The 

 original i)lans called for the manufacture of the panels by 

 the lumbermen. By pointing out that this was a work 

 with which they were unfamiliar the manufacturers con 

 vinced the government that it was better that they should 

 confine their efforts to producing tlie recpiired material. 

 This will lie done and the lumber delivered to contractors 

 who will pursue the structural feature of the work. 



The need for these houses arises from conditions simi- 

 lar to those which make it necessary for this country to 

 send regiments of foresters and woodsmen to the French 

 war zone. Labor for construction purposes is practically 

 unobtainable in Europe. With the ready-made houses 

 the soldiers may provide their own shelter. Every ])hase 

 of the work will be in standard units which will make it 

 possible for the men to erect tpiickly buildings ranging in 

 size from the one-room shelter house to a hospital accom- 

 modating hundreds of patients or barracks for thousands 

 of soldiers. 



The speed with which this new requirement for 

 material will be met will be in kee])ing with the record 

 established in providing lumber for the army camps 



