338 THE AMERICAN FOREST ENGINEERS IN FRANCE 



which actually developed. The region immediately behind and adjoining 

 the American sector of the front was well forested. The fir and spruce 

 forests of the Vosges and Jura Mountains furnished ideal timber for the 

 manufacture of construction lumber as well as the large timbers and long 

 piling which proved to be a vital necessity. Even lumbermen from 

 northwestern America took off their hats to some of these upland stands 

 of silver fir. In the Besanc,on District, the American Engineers cut as 

 much as 65,000 board feet of saw timber to the acre. The largest tree 

 felled, a silver fir, had a diameter of 56 inches and contained 5,530 board 

 feet. The logs cut in these softwood forests of the Eastern Mountains 

 averaged 6 per thousand feet. The Vosges afforded operations of 

 special military value because they were within a stone's throw of the 

 American First and Second Armies and of the supply facilities just 

 behind them. 



A second important forest belt was traversed by the main line of 

 communications of the American Army, through the Loire River Valley 

 and across the headwaters of the Seine and Marne. This is chiefly an 

 agricultural region, but, as in most of France, one is seldom out of sight 

 of patches of woods. Its oak forests were an unfailing supply of railroad 

 ties, road plank, and large timbers for the construction of docks and 

 bridges. Some of its 200 or 240 year old oak timber attains fine dimen- 

 sions. A 60 inch log, the largest found in France, was cut from an oak 

 tree near Dijon. At the large operations near Eclaron the oak logs 

 averaged ten to the thousand board feet. At other hardwood camps 

 the average was fifteen or seventeen. This region also, with its exten- 

 sive areas of hardwood coppice, seemed almost to have been designed in 

 advance as the principal source of fuel for the American troops. In its 

 many plantations of Scotch pine it also furnished ready to hand material 

 suitable for the millions of wire entanglement stakes and small poles 

 required in modern warfare. A third important forest region, the 

 pineries of southwestern France, afforded another large supply of rail- 

 road ties, lumber, and piling which proved to be well located for our 

 great cargo ports at Bordeaux and other large American installations. 

 The pitch pine of this region resembles the shortleaf pine of the Southern 

 States. At the better sets it averaged seventeen and one-half logs per 

 thousand board feet and yielded a fair proportion of 50 and 60 foot piles. 

 For a war in which timber played such a striking part, France was indeed 

 well prepared. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



American Woodsmen Called to the Colors. Soon after the advance 

 guard of the American Expeditionary Force landed in France it was 



