AMERICAN FORESTRY 



NO. 307 



0111 



VOL. XXV JULY, 1919 



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FORESTERS AND LUMBERMEN HOME 



FROM FRANCE 



BY MAJOR DAVID T. MASON. 20th ENGINEERS (FORESTRY) 



AND 

 PERCIVAL SHELDON RIDSDALE, EDITOR OF AMERICAN FORESTRY MAGAZINE 



PRACTICALLY all of the foresters and luniberinen 

 sent to France as members of the Twentieth En- 

 gineers (Forestry) have returned home and beed 

 discharged from the service. They came back with tht- 

 knowledge that they accomplished the job which was 

 given them, that of supplying the United States Army 

 with all the lumber and fuel wood it required, in a man- 

 ner which won the admiration of all who know of the 

 unceasing demands made upon them and of the difficul- 

 ties which they had to overcome. They worked with the 

 spirit which wins success and they return with an ex])e- 

 rience and a training which will greatly increase their 

 ability and render them much more capable than they 

 ever were before of doing whatever work is assigned to 

 them. 



The men who before the war were employed by the 

 Forest Service will return to the Service in the same 



or better positions, those who gave up jobs with lumber 

 companies learn that their jobs or better ones are waiting 

 for them, and men of other vocations who joined the 

 forestry and lumber regiment will have no difficulty in 

 obtaining work, for their two years' training in France 

 has made them better men in every way. 



The first of these forest and lumber troops arrived in 

 France in October, 1917. The units comprised approxi- 

 mately twelve hundred men. By 'the end of the month 

 the several detachments into which the regiment was 

 divided were at work in forests in eastern, southwestern, 

 northwestern and central France. During the long wait 

 for the sawmill equipment there was much preliminary 

 work to be done, such as establishing camps, building 

 roads, cutting and decking logs. A number of small 

 French mills were leased or bought to start lumber pro- 

 duction. The other units began to arrive at their stations 



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