WITH THE AMERICAN LUMBERJACKS IN FRANCE 



389 



which controls forest cessions in the advanced zone. The 

 Timber Acquisition department is responsible for keep- 

 ing a supply of forests ahead of our saw mills, and at the 

 rate at which our mills and pole crews and tie hacks are 

 eating up the stumpage, there is a hefty job cut out for it. 



Aside from these technical departments, our Central 

 Office includes the headquarters of the two forestry 

 regiments with their adjutants and the regimental supply 

 officers who have their hands full in keeping the camps 

 stocked with quartermasters supplies, forage, gasoline 

 and oil, and the like. The forestry operations 

 in France are grouped in 

 districts, each of which 

 conforms roughly to a bat- 

 talion in troop strength and 

 comprises from three to six 

 saw mills. Our districts 

 now extend well over east- 

 ern, central, and southern 

 France. One group of 

 them covers the eastern 

 mountain ranges, from the 

 Vosges down to the edges 

 of the French Alps. These 

 are truly wonderful soft- 

 wood forests, many of 

 whose dense stands evoke 

 the admiration of even our 

 Pacific Coast lumbermen. 

 This timber is largely silver 

 fir, which is the white pine 

 of France ; and the moun- 

 tain belt forms our best 

 supply of general construc- 

 tion lumber. The region 

 is much like the Adiron- 

 dacks or White Mountains, 

 though with larger timber, 

 and presents similar log- 

 ging conditions. Two old- 

 time Pacific Coast loggers 

 are working out the most 

 difficult chance we have 

 with a 2200 foot hoist, 

 which would not be sneezed 

 at even in the Cascades. 

 Sled hauling was possible 

 during a part of last winter 

 and gave our men from 

 Minnesota and Northern 

 New England a chance to 

 show their prowess in this 

 kind of logging. 



Another group of Districts stretches over the rolling 

 hills and plateaus of Central France, which offer a wide 

 variety of forests and forest products. The most com- 

 mon timber is oak, usually growing over a thick under- 

 story of hardwood sprouts, the principal source of 

 French fuelwood. The initiation of many of our 



LIF.UT.-COL. W. B. GREELEY, N. A. 



Recently assigned to a high staff position. Colonel Greeley is attached 

 to the Forestry Section of the Corps of Engineers, American Expeditionary 

 Forces. 



Northwest lumberjacks was in cutting three or four 

 inch sprouts and even in cutting fine brush and bind- 

 ing fagots. Much of the oak is well suited for rail- 

 road ties and this region will be one of the principal 

 sources of the monthly supply of hundreds of thousands 

 of ties which the Railroad and Dock Section requires at 

 the ports and depots of the Expeditionary Forces and for 

 enlarging the capacity of the railroad lines used in for- 

 warding troops and supplies to the front. While wait- 

 ing for their saw mills, many of our men have been 

 hewing ties with every sort of tool from a French ax, 



cast along medieval lines, 

 to a genuine American 

 broad ax. Occasional 

 stands of oak are large 

 enough for bridge and dock 

 timbers, and every log 

 suited to that use must be 

 carefully reserved. The 

 Central French districts 

 also contain many Scotch 

 pine forests, planted for 

 the most part, and from 

 several of these we are get- 

 ting excellent construction 

 lumber, some large timbers, 

 and even a considerable 

 quantity of piling. The 

 areas of small Scotch pine 

 furnish our main supply of 

 telephone and telegraph 

 poles, corduroy, and wire 

 entanglement stakes. Here 

 is located our principal 

 "pole factory" which broke 

 all records when the sud- 

 den call came last winter 

 for 200,000 wire entangle- 

 ment stakes "tout de suite." 

 Central France is a 

 region of woodlots. We 

 are developing flying- 

 squadrons of small detatch- 

 ments, lightly equipped 

 with bolter mills and motor 

 trucks, to work out the lit- 

 tle bunches of tie or pole 

 timber which are almost un- 

 limited. These are the pa- 

 trols or snipers of the for- 

 estry army, and they must 

 be employed more and more 

 largely as time goes on. 

 A third group of Districts takes in the sandy pineries 

 of southern France where the longleaf lumberman feels 

 at home. The extent and value of the forest resources 

 of this region and the way they have been built up by 

 human thrift and patience have given every one of us a 

 lesson in conservation which will never be forgotten. The 



