September 10, 1917 



A ^ew Forestry Regiment 



The War Department has authorized a uew forestry regimeut, 

 similar to the one recruited some time ago. W. E. Brown of New 

 Hampshire, member of the eommitte . on lumber, Council of Na- 

 tional Defense, has written to W. E. DeLaney of the Kentucky 

 Lumber Company, Lexington, Ky., asking him to organize a com- 

 mittee of representative lumbermen in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Ken- 

 tucy and Tennessee, to select men suitable for commissions as 

 officers in the new regiment. The quota for the territory named 

 is one major, four captains, six first lieutenants and four second 

 lieutenants. Similar letters have been written to representative 

 lumbermen in other parts of the country asking them to do like- 

 wise. The committee on lumber is co-operating with the Forest 

 Service and the War Department in raising the new regiment. 

 Men selected for officers must pass the army physical examinations. 

 The recommendations of local committees will be sent to W. L. 

 Hall of the Forest Service, who has charge of its end of the organi- 

 zation work, and who will send application blanks and instruc- 

 tions. The quota of officers must be filled by September 20. 



It is reported that tentatively several men have been slated for 

 commissions, among them Eobert Y. Stuart of the Forest Service; 

 H. A. Langille, formerly with J. D. Lacey, at Portland, Ore.; F. M. 

 Barthelme of Minneapolis, and J. S. Long of the Forest Service, all 

 of whom will be majors. 



Extensive plans being made for equipping American forestry 

 troops are being freely criticized by some limibermen at Washington 

 in connection with government business. They say that the 

 equipment is too extensive and expensive for the uses to which it 

 is likely to be put. Its cost has been estimated as high as $20,000,000, 

 including 40 portable sawmills, many heavy steel logging cars, 

 gasoline locomotives, 60 miles of steel rails, many gross of cross- 

 cut saws, mules, horses, tools, etc. 



The formation of a second forest regiment has been authorized 

 by the War Department. Two battalions are to be raised at once. 

 It is expected that the remaining eight battalions will be called 

 for in a short time. Nine service battalions, made up of laborers 

 who will be used in connection with the forest regiment, have also 

 been authorized and two battalions have been ordered raised at 

 once. 



In order to provide for future contingencies it has been decided 

 to commission at the present time enough officers for other bat- 

 talions yet to be raised. Those men not needed now will be placed 

 on the reserve and will be called as the other units are formed. 

 According to the present plan, fifty per cent of the officers will 

 be sawmill and logging operators, twenty-five per cent will be tech- 

 nical foresters and twenty-five per cent will be men with military 

 trining. A number of the graduates of the new engineer camps 

 have been selected for service with the new units. The minimum 

 age limit for commissioned officers has been set at thirty-one. 



A first regiment of woodsmen has already been assembled and 

 is now being trained at American University, D. C. This regiment 

 was raised at the request of the British government to undertake 

 the production in France of crossties, bridge, trench, and construc- 

 tion timbers, mine props, lumber and other forms of wood required 

 in connection with its military operations. The landing of Ameri- 

 can expeditionary forces has made necessary similar provision for 

 their needs, while the French military authorities have indicated 

 that some of the work incidental to their operations might be taken 

 over by woodsmen from this country. Decision to raise the new and 

 much larger force has followed a study of the field of possible use- 

 fullness to the Allied cause, made by American foresters attached 

 to General Pershing's staff. 



The regiment will be made up of volunteers. Applicants must 

 be white and between the ages of eighteen and forty. Skilled lum- 

 berjacks, portable mill operators, tie cutters, logging teamsters, 

 camp cooks, millwrights and charcoal burners are among the classes 

 of men desired. 



For the "service'"" battalions both negro and white laborers will 

 be enlisted. 



The Wood for Treenails 



The government is reported to have reached a decision that tree- 

 nails, or wooden pins, used in building wooden ships, must be of locust 

 or of eucalyptus. This narrows the choice down to two woods; for 

 though there are more than half a dozen trees in the United States 

 which are occasionally called locust, and 150 kinds of eucalyptus in 

 the world, there is only one locust wanted for the treenails, and, it 

 is presumed, no eucaljnptus that grows in this country wUl do. The 

 treenail eucalyptus is a product of Australia and is not represented 

 in America except as a few trees may have been planted in Califorijia 

 and Arizona. 



The locust wanted for treenails is known botanically as Eobinia pseu- 

 dacacia. It has various names in English, depending upon locality 

 and custom. Some call it locust without any qualifying term, while 

 to others it is known as black locust, yellow locust, white locust, red 

 locust, gi-eeu locust, and post locust. It has even more names than 

 these. Some of the names are due to the color of the wood, others to 

 the color of the bark, while white locust refers to the flower. The 

 wood is extremely strong, hard, heavy, and durable, when exposed 

 to decay. New Mexican locust and Clammy locust are of the same 

 genus and their wood compares favorably with the treenail wood; 

 but they are too scarce to be worth looking after by makers of tree- 

 nails. 



Honey locust and water locust are different species from those de- 

 scribed above, though belonging to the same family. They are quite 

 abundant in some parts of the country, in the South particularly, and 

 inquiries have reached Hardwood Eecord as to whether treenails made 

 of these woods will pass the government tests. This paper has no 

 authority to decide that question, but it does not hesitate to express 

 an opinion that the government will not accept treenails made of 

 honey locust or water locust (Gleditsia tricantJios and Gleditsia aquat- 

 ica). Their wood is not very hard. Several of the oaks are harder. It 

 might be durable enough and possibly it has enough strength. It is 

 excellent from the standpoint of shrinking qualities. Few woods shrink 

 less than honey locust duriug the process of seasoning. 



Most of the locusts of the various species have been widely planted. 

 Each of them, in its wOd state, was restricted to pretty narrow 

 boundaries, but man has spread them much more widely than nature 

 was able to do. 



The International Sales Company, of Washington, D. C, which is 

 securing large quantities of black locust from nearby Virginia, is 

 manufacturing treenails in Georgetown, D. C. This company has 

 shipped twenty-one carloads of treenails to the Pacific coast and has 

 furnished some consignments to shipyards on the Gulf coast. One 

 carload of finished stock is required for each standard wooden ship. 

 Becently a farmer offered to sell the company 500,000 feet of locust 

 off bis own farm. Farmers as well as lumbermen with good stands 

 of locust should find a good market for it. The International com- 

 pany had some trouble securing locust in sufficient quantities at the 

 outset but the trouble has been eliminated. The logs now are being 

 shipped up the Potomac river to Georgetown. 



A Long Islander recently advised the company that choice Long 

 Island locust is the best for treenaOs, but Virginia and other stock 

 have proved entirely satisfactory. 



The original range of this locust did not extend as far east as 

 Long Island, nor did honey locust originally grow east of the Appa- 

 lachian mountains. Very fine black or yellow locust abounds in its 

 original habitat in western Maryland, West Virginia and western 

 Pennsylvania, and it may be expected that mucli treenail stock will 

 come from that region. 



Eigid construction and steady running in a planer are two different 

 things, yet often the former helps secure the latter. 



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