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Canadian ForestT}) Journal, behruar^, 1919 



permanent source of raw material; and it is to 

 the interest of the country as a whole to be in- 

 dependent of outside sources of supply. 



No wonder then that the French valued their 

 forests, and were unwilling to have them need- 

 lessly destroyed. They did not forget the years 

 of toil they had spent in creating them. They 

 were willing to give up all the timber that was 

 ready to cut, and even to sacrifice that which 

 they would not normally have cut for ten or 

 fifteen years. But they were firm against anni- 

 hilating any forest, or cutting it in such a way 

 that it could not recover with reasonable care. 

 They, therefore, maintained absolute control 

 over the methods of cutting. On the Govern- 

 ment owned forests, they were particularly strict, 

 marking every tree to be cut and prescribing in 

 detail the methods of brush disposal, etc. On 

 private lands the owner marked or designated in 

 the contract those trees which he would sell. He 

 also laid down the manner of brush disposal and 

 other operationos. Ultimate control was vested 

 in a committee composed of representatives 

 selected by the Minister of Agriculture, the Min- 

 ister of Munitions, as well as all other interested 

 members of the cabinet, and representatives of 

 the lumber industry. Under these conditions we 

 had little choice as to methods of cutting. 



You are doubtless wondering how the Canadi- 

 an and American lumbermen got along when 

 they had carefully-managed forests to cut. 



Overseas Men Careful. 



The operations were uniformly well carried 

 out. The stumps were cut so low you could 

 hardly see them; the tops were chopped into 

 cordwood, and the slash thoroughly cleaned up. 

 The cutting areas of the Canadians and Ameri- 

 cans were generally better than those of the 

 French wood merchants themselves. This goes 

 to show that the lumberman can cut under 

 forestry methods when he has to. He can do it 

 even when subjected to the greatest imaginable 

 pressure for quick production; and what is more, 

 he does it well. 



The organization of the American forestry 

 section was patterned largely after that of the 

 Canadian Forestry Corps. When Col. Graves 

 and I landed in France in June 1917, we went 

 first of all to the British Forestry Directorate at 

 La Touquet. General Lord Lovatt received us 

 with the greatest friendliness, and gave us com- 

 plete data which he had prepared in advance, 

 covering his entire organization and equipment. 

 Then, after a trip to the Canadian operations 

 under Col. Johnson on the Government forest of 

 La Joux in Eastern France, and after working 



over the information collected, we drew up a 

 cable outlining the organization of the forestry 

 troops required by the A.E.F. We based our 

 requirements on an army of two million men, 

 and asked for 18,000 forestry troops, of which 

 7,500 were to be skilled lumbermen, about 4,500 

 engineer troops for road and camp construction, 

 and about 6,000 unskilled labour. At the same 

 time we requested twelve officers to come over 

 at once for our overhead organization. These 

 officers we asked for by name. They arrived in 

 about two months, in time to be of great service 

 in acquiring standing timber and other prepara- 

 tory work. The unit of the Canadian Forestry 

 Corps is the company. We made ours the 

 battalion on account of our army regulations; it 

 was hard at first to make our superiors see the 

 need for elasticity. Forestry troops were an 

 entirely new venture. The number of men in 

 the actual operations depended entirely upon 

 the needs of the case. Sometimes only 50 men 

 would work together and then again, we would 

 have a thousand or more. 



Fighting Speculators. 



The standing timber was all bought through 

 an interallied committee composed of French, 

 British and Americans; later the Belgians were 

 represented. We ourselves selected each forest, 

 in company with a French officer, and then laid 

 it before the committee. The negotiations with 

 the owner, and purchaser, were done by the 

 French. The French possessed the right of 

 requisition, and used it effectively, savmg 

 millions of dollars and defeating the swarms of 

 speculators which buzzed around us like flies 

 around the honey pot. By persistent efforts we 

 managed to acquire timber enough to keep 

 ahead of the operations. But toward the end 

 it was becoming more and more difficult to 

 find reasonably accessible tracts. Accessibility 

 was of prime importance in selecting timber be- 

 cause of the need for rapid production. If the 

 war had lasted we would have been in a difficult 

 position. When it ended, we were planning to 

 do railroad logging in the mountains. 



Logging conditions varied greatly. The south- 

 western pineries are as level as a table, except 

 for the dunes along the edge, and resemble our 

 southern long leaf pine country. Central France 

 is level or rolling, the chief obstacle being the 

 heavy sticky clay. Here the forests were mostly 

 oak, which we cut into ties, wharf timbers, and 

 road plank. The silver fir forests of Eastern 

 France were in the mountains. Our chief 

 trouble there was the narrow gauge railroads 



