Copyright, hitcnintioiial Fi!))i Sc 



Passed by the Censor, 



EFFECT OF VIOLENT BOMBARDMENT ON TREES 



Much of the recent severe fighting which marked the German attack along the western battle front occurred on the famous Height of Hartmanns- 

 weilerkopf, in Alsace. This hill has been captured and recaptured by French and Germans nearly a dozen times, and has been subjected to 

 frequent and heavy artillery fire. The photograph, taken on a hazy morning, with the smoke from heavy guns clouding the sky, indicates 

 graphically the effect of artillery fire on the trees. Before the war this was a thickly wooded forest; now the trees which remain standing have 

 had their limbs shot away and are exposed to insect and disease attacks in the many shot wounds which have shattered them. 



Conditions in French Forests 



A NEWSPAPER report to the Associated Press 

 from Paris says : "The friends of French forests 

 behind the lines have been reassured by the 

 announcement that Fontainebleau shall not be touched 

 and that the cuttings in other forests for the needs of the 

 army are done by government foresters. The necessary 

 timber for the front will be furnished without causing 

 serious inroads. There is still considerable anxiety as 

 to the fate of forests within cannon range, and behind 

 the German lines. Civilians, evacuated forcibly by the 

 occupying troops and finally sent back to France by way 

 of Switzerland, state that trains bringing supplies to the 

 army instead of returning empty carry back, among other 

 things, immense quantities of the choicest timber of the 

 departments of Meurthe and Moselle, the Ardennes, the 

 Vosges and the Meuse. 



"A year's systematic cutting in the estimation of com- 

 petent authorities would furnish many millions of dol- 

 lars' worth of timber without necessarily ruining the 

 forests. All depends on how and where the cutting is 

 done. 



"Senator Julew Meline, who was born at Remireniont 

 in the Vosges, where 37 per cent of the territory is tim- 

 bered, and still lives there, says that the war ravages oni 

 the forests have been considerable along the battle front. 

 but in proportion to the total wooded country are really 

 insignificant. Some woods, like the Bois de la Gruree 

 have been practically destroyed beyond hope of recovery,. 

 but in many other places, excepting among the pines, iL 

 i.'! hoped that a great m.any damaged trees will survive. 



"Forest fires are unknown in the region of the fighting, 

 and no damage is anticipated from fire, no matter how 

 intense the cannonading. The timber value of all trees 

 standing along the battle front will have been greatly 

 diminished by the numerous bullets in their trunks because 

 the circular saws that easily went through the lead bullets 

 in the trees after the war of 1870 break their teeth on the 

 hardened projectiles of 1915. 



"The timbered regions of France cover 18 per cent of 

 its area and comprise more than 23 million acres. Four- 

 teen per cent of this acreage is in the departments that 

 have been overrun by the warring forces, and of that 1-t 



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