1316 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Photograph by courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters 



ITALIAN INFANTRY AWAITING THE ORDER TO ADVANCE TO THE COUNTER ATTACK 

 ALONG THE RAILWAY NEAR NKRVESA ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 24, 1918, JUST AFTER THE 

 AUSTRIANS HAD CROSSED THE PIAVE RIVER IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO REACH VENICE. 

 PADUA AND MILAN. SOME OF THE BITTEREST FIGHTING OF THE WAR TOOK PLACE HERE 

 AND AFTER TWO WEEKS OF CONSTANT STRUGGLE THE ENEMY WAS FINALLY HURLED 

 BACK ACROSS THE RIVER WITH AN ESTIMATED LOSS OF 250,000 MEN. DURING THE LOWEST 

 EBB IN THE MORALE OF THE ALLIES, THE ITALIANS MADE A GREAT STAND AND FINALLY 

 WON ONE OF THE GREATEST VICTORIES OF THE WAR. 



somewhat similar to the sharp rise of our own Rocky 

 Mountains from the flat Colorado prairie. The line 

 crosses Monte Grappa, Monte Rossa, dips down across 

 the Val Brenta, crosses the high Asiago Plateau, dips 

 once more in the double valley on each side of Monte 

 Cimone and across Lake Garda, then rises across the 

 highest parts of the Alps, including the Posilipo and the 

 I'osubio, to the Swiss border. 



Through the kindness of the Italian war officials and 

 the General Staff it was my privilege to investigate the 

 conditions along practically the whole Italian front, in- 

 clucling both the lines along the flat Piave River plain 

 and the higher mountain country as well. Captain 

 Scaravaglio, of General Headquarters, proved to be not 

 only a courteous and gracious host but a most intelligent 

 and well-informed officer on the conditions at the front. 

 He had summered and tramped over a good section of 

 this mountainous country. He said the whole mountain 

 front had never been a heavily forested section. The 

 upper slopes contained scattered stands of silver fir and 

 Norway s]iruce, while the lower slopes, particularly in 

 the gulches and ravines, contained open stands of chest- 

 nut and oak. There was a good deal of young growth 

 and middle-aged timber, and sporadic attempts had been 

 made at reforestation on the more favorable locations. In 

 some of the upper valleys, particularly on the Asiago 

 Plateau, there were good stands of silver fir and Norway 

 spruce, running from eight to twenty thousand board 

 feet per acre or more. 



As a result of continual fighting and heavy artillery 

 bombardment, the whole mountain front has been practi- 

 cally cleared of all evidences of timber growth, in many 

 cases the upper soil being so dotted with shell holes that 



not a living plant is in evidence. 

 Stumps of trees here and there 

 give evidence of former stands 

 of timber and shattered and 

 broken trunks stand out like 

 skeletons against the sky, the 

 only remains of former timber 

 growth. 



The whole mountain section 

 immediately appeals to one as be- 

 ing the most urgent subject for 

 reforestation and it will require 

 considerable effort and much 

 money to bring back this beauti- 

 ful mountain region to even the 

 sparsely forested condition which 

 it presented prior to the war. 



Along the Piave River front, 



the country on both sides is one 



of the most fertile agricultural 



regions .of the world, as the crop 



statistics substantiate, so that 



generally speaking, there has 



been little forest destruction. 



While on the battlefield of Mon- 



tello a few days after the Aus- 



trians had been repulsed with 



great losses from their advance beginning June 15 across 



the Piave, an excellent opportvmity was given to study 



the effects of shell and gun fire in an old chestnut grove 



back of the little village of Nervesa which had been used 



Photograph by courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters 



A COLUMN OF AUSTRIAN PRISONERS, GUARDED BY ITALIAN 

 SOLDIERS, PASSING THROUGH ONE OF THE PICTURESQUE OLD 

 WALLED TOWNS BACK OF THE PIAVE FRONT EN ROUTE TO 

 CENTRAL ITALY FOR VARIOUS KINDS OF EMPLOYMENT. THE 

 ITALIAN GUARDS MAY BE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR STEEL 

 HELMETS, 



