Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1919 



373 



est products. It should be remembered that if land and stumpage prices can be made high 

 this policy is adopted state and national gov- enough to cover the bonds and the accmu- 

 ernments will be the largest owners of timber lated interest." 



THE BUSINESS SENSE OF OLD FRANCE 



Lieut. -Col. H. M. Stickney, jr., who was with 

 the American Expeditionary Force, comments as 

 follows upon conditions in France : 



"The French Government, even m peace 

 times, is extremely careful of its forests, hus- 

 banding them with the utmost care, even though 

 they have a great deal of timber, far more than 

 IS supposed. Everywhere one drives through the 

 country, there are large forests which are kept 

 with all the care of a well-ordered farm. The 

 entire forest administration is a Government 

 matter, and every forest has its forester in the 

 employ of the Government. He has supervision 

 over all matter pertainmg to the use and care of 

 the woods, game protection included. Me per- 

 sonally marks with paint every tree that is ciit, 

 and only marks those trees which have reached 

 their maturity, and are on the point of starting 

 downward in the quality of the timber. When 

 a tree is cut, the merchantable logs ar>? taken 

 to the nearest mill, slung under a gigantic twc- 

 wheeled cart with no body at all, being simply 

 a long timber with chains which support the log. 

 Sometimes, if the log is big enough, or two or 

 three logs are carried at a time, the leai- end is 

 slung under an extra front wheels and only held 

 to them by the log itself. So much for the 

 timber. The balance of the tree is limbed, 

 sawed into firewood, and piled ready for dis- 

 tribution. The limbs themselves down to the 

 smallest branches are also cut inlo firewood, and 

 piled, the very small ones being cut with a sort 

 of knife which resembles a combination of 

 Spanish machete and butcher's cleaver, and 

 bound together with withes into bundles about 

 6 inches in diameter. The early growth of lim- 

 ber is rationed to the different industries and 

 to private families for firewood in accordance 

 with a fixe dschedule which is strictly adhered 

 to, even in peace times. This makes French 

 forests an actual industrial proposition, which 

 under efficient administration, will last the peo- 

 ple forever, if they don't have too many wars. 



The Saving Sense. 



"It is very interesting to see the users of lum- 

 ber making use of every possible economy, sav- 

 ing every stick and using the wood in some cases 



several times, as long as there is anything left 

 that can be used. For example, in the iron 

 mines at Marron, one of the small mining pro- 

 perties which was not captured by the boche, 

 they timbered their galleries with upright posts 

 from three to five inches in diameter, with a 

 slab usually about three or four feet long, which 

 supports the roof. It was almost inconceivable 

 that such light timber could hold the loads. As 

 a matter of fact, I saw several galleries in which 

 the timbering had started to break down under 

 the tremendous pressure of the burden. When 

 they have finished taking all the ore out of a 

 gallery, instead of letting it cave, timber and all, 

 as we do, they hire a class of men who are 

 from generation to generation in taking out mine 

 called in French 'wood-drawers,' who are expert 

 timbering and do nothing else. These men, be- 

 ginning at the further end of the gallery, take 

 out these posts and slabs, letting the gallery cave 

 in behind them. The strange part of it is that 

 there are very few accidents. These posts and 

 pieces of slab are used over and over again 

 until they become broken, when the slabs are 

 returned to the little mill and cut up for other 

 purposes. When broken the posts are sawed 

 into ties for the narrow gauge railroads upon 

 which ore is carried out to the main line. The 

 foregoing is a fair example of timber economy 

 as it is practiced in France. 



Rigid Laws. 



"The rigidity of French forest laws is well 

 shown by a case which happened in the early 

 spring of 1918 when one of my captains ran out 

 of wood for use in his company kitchen. He 

 was camped in a big forest which was probably 

 4 miles square, and he cut one old maple tree 

 which was hollow one-third of its length, and 

 which should have been marked by the forester 

 for cutting years before. He cut it close to the 

 ground, covered up the stump and used all the 

 wood for firewood. The forester on one of his 

 inspection trips, found the stump and hned the 

 captain 34 francs (about $6) for cutting the 

 tree, as it had been agreed between our army 

 and the French that no trees would be cut for 

 wood other than those specified by the forester 



