NOTES AND COMMENTS 



Canadian Lumbermen in France 



A Swiss forester gives in the Journal Forestier an interesting ac- 

 count of a Canadian lumber camp in France in one of the famous fir 

 forests of the State in the Jura Mountains, la Joux. This is a forest 

 of about 6,500 acres of silver fir of magnificent dimensions — very 

 diflferent from most French forests in which Canadians have been 

 working — the trees being often over 160 feet in height and sometimes 

 3 feet in diameter. The forest being carefully managed under selec- 

 tion system, or perhaps, we should say, under a long term shelter- 

 wood S3'Stem, is supposed to permit a sustained yield of 222 cubic feet 

 per acre, valued at $50 per acre per year — an unusual figure. 



From the description, we judge that the operation is organized like 

 a first-class American logging and mill camp, with both cable and 

 animal skidding and a four-foot circular, with cut-off and trimmer 

 saws, and locomobile to carry the lumber. A stone crusher to furnish 

 material for making the heavy bottomless roads passable alone is an 

 innovation. 



It is interesting to note what strikes the European particularly : first, 

 the double bitted axes, but next the unconservative exploitation, the 

 high stumps and disregard of the younger material and regeneration. 

 There is an oversight by the French administration, but the officers 

 cannot get any satisfaction from these "neophyte" woodchoppers, who, 

 it is charged, are not woodchoppers by vocation, being a mixture of 

 negroes, Irish, Polish. Czech, and Anglo-Saxons. But the transport 

 and the mill work are admired for their rapidity and effective organ- 

 ization. The writer also remarks on the complete absence of brutality 

 to the horses — no whipping, no kicking of the excellent animals, which 

 seem of a special race. 



"The Avork at the mill is executed with an exactitude and a rapidity 

 which is remarkable; and the men at this job show an activity which 

 contrasts well with the inferior woodchoppers. The machine does not 

 loiter and works in true American manner." Everything to the last 

 nail comes from Canada. Practical sense and comfort, abundant food, 

 absence of alcohol, baths, infirmary, including an operating room, and 

 a moving-picture show provoke admiration. 



1057 



