Yale Forestry Class in the Woods 



Bv James L. Goodwin 



ONE iimrning early in Maixli. tliirly of us, en- After hastily swallowing a scanty breakfast at the 



thusiastic Yale Forest School seniors, awoke hotel, we embarked on the special train, consisting of a 

 U> gaze fmm the windows of our special sleeper caboose and engine, which the company had provided, 

 at the little mill town of Clarks in northern Louisiana, and were taken S miles over the logging railroad to 

 upon which the sun was shining with a warmth and the site which had been selected for our camp, 

 brilliance which we had not felt for many weeks. This A half hour's run brought us to our destination and 



town and its surrounding woods 

 was to be our home for three 

 months, and here, according to 

 the annual custom of the Forest 

 School, we were to put into 

 practice the principles of for- 

 estry accjuired in the lecture 

 room and learn from the actual 

 operations in the woods and the 

 mill how the tall pine trees of 

 the forest are converted into 

 lumber for our towns and cities. 

 We were not long in starting 

 on a tour of investigation of our 

 new surroundings. The first 

 point of interest that attracted 

 our attention was the general 

 supply store, over whose wide 

 doorway was written in big let- 

 ters, "The Louisiana Central 

 Lumber Co., and in and out of 

 which sauntered in leisurely 

 southern fashion long, lanky 

 lumbermen and negroes, while 

 a group of farmers whose 

 horses were hitched to various 

 trees and juists in the vicinity 

 stood on the front steps and dis- 

 cussed the crop and timber out- 

 put and vigorously chewed tobacco. Xext to the store 

 stood the hotel, a large white building, with vine-covered 



CAMP 01- THR YALE FOREST STUDENTS 



Here in the depths of the lonely Louisiana pine woods, the boys made their camp of fifteen canvas 

 houses, including a cook shanty and bunkhouse, each tent being titted witli a wooden floor and 

 made thoroughly comfortable- 



we landed Ijag and baggage. Here ground h.ad been 

 cleared and a cook shanty and bunkhouse built, an<l at 

 verandas reaching to the roof and a small green lawn once we set to work laying floors with lumber that had 

 in front, surrounded by a picket fence, and in which been provided b\- the comi)any, and raising tents, so that 



Ijy nightfall this lonely spot in the depths of the pine 



a row of rose bushes was already beginning to show 

 signs of life. Li front of the hotel ran a broad, dusty 

 loadwav which, before it ended in the pine woods 

 a half mile bevund, was lined on each side by small, 

 one-storied houses where the mill employes li\e<l. .\ 

 library building, a less pretentions church and a two- 

 storied wo<i(len house th.it was used as a ilispensary and 

 infirmary completed the list of buildings on Clark's 

 main street. .Kdjoining on the left ami covering as 

 much space as the town, stood the sawmill, its long 

 alkwways piled high with various sizes and grades of 

 yellow jiine lumber, its tall chimneys and refuse burner 



woi.hIs was suddenly iransformeil into a settlement of 

 fitteeii cainas Ikjuscs. 



Xext da)- work beg.m. It was di\ ided into two parts: 

 the foreslr)' work .and '■ur\eying, and ,-i stud\' and written 

 lepiirt on the lumliL-ring operations in the woods, and on 

 llic work in the mill at Cltrks. 



bor the first .six weeks surxeying with transit and 

 level was carried on o\er the neighboring roads within 

 a radius of Vi miles, wdiile in the woods land lines were 

 run by crews of six with a chain and survevor's com- 



cmitting black smoke, and the ever-busy saws on its mill pass to re-establish old section and township lines and 



floor and in its ])laning shed sending ont to the warm air corners. Later a timber estimate was made by sections 



a i.-ontinuous buzz and hum. of an area of approximately 50 square miles, and a map 

 872 



