166 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



prepared, so that all demands upon it were met as they arose. The 

 entrance of a considerable number of men into military service took 

 place without disorganization of the administrative and protective 

 force. Upon request of the War Department the preliminaries of 

 recruiting and officering the Tenth Engineers (Forest) were han- 

 dled. Increase of crop production in and near the Forests was stim- 

 ulated and the forage resource of the Forests was made available for 

 emergency use up to the limit of safety. In the latter part of the 

 summer a fire season of extreme danger, made worse in some locali- 

 ties by an unusual prevalence of incendiarism, was passed through 

 with relatively small loss of property and with no reported loss of 

 life. 



The decision of the War Department to organize as a part of the 

 Engineer branch of the service a special force for forest work fol- 

 lowed a request from Great Britain for a regiment made up of men 

 skilled in lumbering and sawmill operating, to assist in the produc- 

 tion in France of timber products required by the British Army, 

 Since all French forests are managed under the careful practice of 

 forestry, to meet the request a regiment was needed which could meet 

 the special conditions imposed by this fact. The assistance of the 

 Forest Service in raising it was therefore sought. Officers were 

 selected for recommendation to the War Department, of whom a 

 majority were trained foresters. For the rank and file woodsmen and 

 millmen were drawn from all the main lumber regions of the coun- 

 try. To make preliminary arrangements for the work of the regi- 

 ment and for similar work by such additional units as might be 

 needed later the forester received leave of absence from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and was sent abroad by the War Department 

 as a major attached to the staff of the commander of the American 

 Expeditionary Force. A number of other members of the Forest 

 Service have been commissioned by the War Department in connec- 

 tion with the work. Owing to the very large needs of our own ex- 

 pedition for wood supplies abroad it has become necessary to plan 

 for a considerable addition to the forestry force already sent to 

 France. 



In the work relating to forest utilization and forest products, the 

 resources of the Service have been employed to the limit of their 

 capacity since the war began in rendering assistance to the War and 

 Navy Departments, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, various com- 

 mittees of the Council of National Defense, and manufacturers 

 of war orders. The peace-time program has been largely discon- 

 tinued. The force and the work have been centered in Washington 

 and Madison. Every effort has been made to bring available knowl- 

 edge to the attention of the organizations which have need for it and 

 to assist in anticipating their problems. 



On aircraft the efforts of the Service have included the develop- 

 ment of methods by which spruce and ash can be artificially dried 

 without loss of strength and toughness, obviously involving supple- 

 mentary strength tests; tests to determine the best substitutes for 

 these species, and for each species selected the development of safe 

 methods of artificial drying; study of the effects of steaming on 

 mechanical properties of ash and spruce, to develop the best condi- 

 tions for bending; the selection of the woods most suitable for pro- 

 pellers; tests to determine the proper methods of conditioning and 



