WINNING THE WAR WITH LUMBER 349 



pineries had begun cutting 50-foot piles which were urgently needed for 

 the American docks at Bordeaux. Less than one year later, when the 

 armistice was signed with Germany, the forestry troops were operating 

 eighty-one American sawmills and cutting 2,000,000 board feet of lum- 

 ber, ties, piles, and poles every working day, aside from vast quantities 

 of fuelwood. Within this year's time over 90 per cent of the personnel 

 of the Forestry Section had landed in France, taken their stations, put 

 up their sawmills, constructed their railroad connections, and cut 300,- 

 000,000 board feet of lumber and railroad ties, 38,000 piles, and 2,878.000 

 poles and entanglement stakes. The cut of fuel wood during the same 

 period was some 317,000 cords. 



The Spirit of the Forestry Troops. A deal of labor, of Yankee 

 ingenuity, and of determination to back up the fighting troops of the 

 American force with the timber which they needed were required in 

 producing these results. Nor is it possible to describe the pressure 

 upon all of us during the summer and fall of 1918 when every lumber- 

 jack in the regiment felt the tenseness of the final grapple and put 

 everything he had into it. I will never forget the big mill at Eclaron 

 as I saw it one October night sparks streaming from its stacks, its 

 two carriages flashing back and forth, loads of oak logs creaking up to 

 the mill deck, cars being shunted about, ties loaded into them hot from 

 the saws, and the sober, earnest faces of the men as they worked under 

 the electric lights. They were shipping 5,000 ties daily to the Argonne 

 offensive. That scene was typical of the eighty or more forestry opera- 

 tions in France during the great drive. 



Winning the War with Lumber. The daily and monthly mill cuts 

 afford an excellent index of the spirit which the lumberjack engineers 

 put into their work. Rated capacities quickly disappeared in the saw- 

 dust. The 27th Company, at Mouthe, holds the record for the largest 

 day's cut at any forestry operation. This company produced 177,486 

 board feet of fir lumber and timbers on a "20,000" mill in 23 hours and 

 25 minutes. The 37th Company, formerly Company F of the Tenth 

 Engineers, made the largest 20-hour cut, 163,376 feet, with the same 

 type of mill and product. The camp of the 26th Company, at la Cluse, 

 carried off the pennant for a 20-hour run with a "10,000" mill, knock- 

 ing out 78,881 feet of fir lumber and timbers. Three other companies, 

 operating in softwood timber, made daily records with 10,000-foot mills 

 of from 63,000 to 68,650 feet. Several of the 10,000-foot mills made 

 daily records, in two shifts, of from 40,000 to 55,539 feet of hardwood 

 lumber, ties, and timbers. 



One of the most remarkable achievements was that of the 19th Com- 

 pany in the 7th Battalion, which in 10| hours cut 64,000 board feet of 

 oak ties with a bolter mill rated to produce 5,000 feet per shift. 



