FOREST RESEARCH AXL) THE WAR 2(51 



ting, and our own regiment of Forest Engineers when the armistice 

 was signed had reached 20,000 men. On this side of the Atlantic the 

 spruce industry in Xew England was being rapidly organized by the 

 Navy to utilize for aircraft the entire percentage of the output suitable 

 in size and quality and, further, to increase output to the maximum. 

 The Spruce Production Corps of the Pacific Northwest operated in a 

 region which before the war had only a nominal production with an 

 Army organization alone on July i of 20.000 men. Heavy drains were 

 made upon our southern-pine industry for cantonment and shi]) ma- 

 terial, and ship, aircraft, and cantonment requirements taxed Douglas- 

 fir production in the Pacific Northwest. For gunstocks and propeller 

 material we have almost literally taken a census of the black walnut 

 throughout its range. England and France and Italy, as well as the 

 United States, have covered the tropics of America and Africa and the 

 Philippines to secure mahogany for propellers. The supply of cocoanut 

 shells everywhere has been drawn upon. 



The demand for wood for such uses as wagons, ties, road-making, 

 housing, and fuel for the armies was to be anticipated. Less expected 

 was the enormous demand for stakes in the wire entanglements in 

 from one to many lines over the entire length of each front, sometimes 

 reaching a depth of several hundred yards and subject to frequent 

 change. Who anticipated the actual consumption for dugout props and 

 for trench lagging, or that timber would be in such demand that it 

 would be mined after shifts in the front? The war brought home 

 something new in the exacting character of airplane requirements as 

 well as surprised us by the volume necessary. The question of boxing 

 and packing became so important with the need for conserving ship- 

 ping space and securing the most efl:'ective results that a special organi- 

 zation was formed in our General Staff, which later was extended into 

 all of the bureaus of the War Department. 



The charcoal in gas masks preserved our western front before gas 

 attacks. Wood pulp when fighting ceased was coming rapidly to the 

 fore to supplement the supply of cotton linters in the manufacture of 

 nitrocellulose, and it was wood pulp again which entered into a paper 

 effective against sneeze gases. Hardwood distillation furnishes an im- 

 portant substance for the manufacture of one class of explosives and 

 grain alcohol of another, and the manufacture of grain alcohol from 

 wood waste and from waste sulphite liquor was stimulated through the 

 great need for food of the grains ordinarily consumed. Naval stores, 

 among other things, had a particular field of usefulness in shrapnel- 



