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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXV 



MARCH, 1919 



NO. 30.3 



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FOREST CASUALTIES OF OUR ALLIES 



BY PERCIVAL SHELDON RIDSDALE 

 EDITOR OF AMERICAN FORESTRY 



This is the first of a long series of articles on the effect of the Great War on the forests of Europe, articles based on information 

 secured during a tour of Great Britain, France, and Belgium during December, 1918, and January and February, 1919. This trip 

 was taken for the purpose of investigating the war tiine losses in the forests of these three countries and of ascertaining how best 



America can aid in restoring these forests. — Editor. 



Paris, France, January 20, 1919. 



THE Peace Conference is to determine how German}- 

 shall supply France, Great Britain, Belgium, and 

 Italy with lumber which these countries lost in the 

 Great War; lost by the cutting of the forests by the 

 Allied armies, the cutting 



for army requirements or 

 the shipping to Germany 

 for civilian uses by the Ger- 

 mans, and the destruction 

 of the forests and wood- 

 lands by the shell, shrapnel 

 and rifle fire of the con- 

 tending armies. 



This action will result 

 in the replacement of actual 

 losses of timber, but it 

 will not restore the cut 

 over and the devastated 

 forests. 



The restoration of 

 these- forests is the 

 particular mission on 



which the American Forestry Association sent the writer 

 to Europe, a mission requiring an examination of the 

 forests and woodlands, not only on the battle front, but 

 also behind the fighting area and in Great Britain. 



As a result of the in- 

 quiries, which established 

 most forcibly the need of 

 reforestation, the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association 

 has undertaken the patri- 

 otic task of supplying 

 France, Belgium, and Great 

 Britain with a quantity of 

 American forest tree seeds 

 which are to be used in the work of restoring the depleted forests of these three 

 countries. This is an endeavor, gratefully accepted by the Europeans, 

 which may be viewed as an appreciation by the lovers of forestry in 

 America of the sacrifices which the Allied countries made in the vitally 

 necessary task of supplying their armies ; and which the ruthless enemy 

 compelled in his lavish use of the forests not only for his army but for his 

 civilians, and often, so it seems, for the purpose of barbaric destruction 

 entirely unwarranted by military requirements. Do these countries need 



A series of articles on the forest condi- 

 tions in France, Belgium, Great Britain, and 

 Italy, and also on the work of America's for- 

 estry regiments will follow month by month. 

 They will be well illustrated by photographs 

 secured especially for the purpose. 



Underwood and Undertvood 



ONCE A TREE SHADED ROAD 



The path of desolation which remained after the German advance along the Amiens — St. Quentin Road where desperate fighting prevented them 

 from reaching their object, the big supply station of the British at Amiens. Many of these trees were a hundred years old. 



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