WITH THE AMERICAN LUMBERJACKS IN FRANCE 



391 



riage, with the boiler always as rearguard. Meanwhile 

 we grew gray and desperate and worked our hearts out 

 on pitiful little French mills where the logs are fed to 

 the saw by man-power applied to a crank or by the 

 bare hands. At last, however, we have the five 20 

 thousand foot mills of the Engineers up and running 

 at a good clip. 

 Their April cut 

 was 6,805,000 

 board feet, 

 mostly of thin 

 lumber. D 

 Company's 

 mill, which in- 

 cludes a bolter 

 saw and a little 

 French port- 

 able rig, led the 

 race with a cut 

 for the month 

 of 1,923,242 

 feet. F Com- 

 p a n y ' s mill 

 came second 

 with 1,525,282 

 feet. The mill 

 equipment of 

 the Engi- 

 neers is coming 

 along some- 

 what faster, and we were generously helped by the 

 Canadian Forestry Corps with three large and two small 

 mills. At the present writing, we are operating seven 

 20's and ten 10's, while eight mills of each capacity are 

 being installed. We are also working nine French mills 



A FORESTRY CAMP IN FRANCE 



Who can make a better camp than a lumber-jack soldier? This is a typical street in one of the camps. 

 The conditions of the soldiers are nearly perfect, as the men are either housed or quartered in such tents 

 as these, floored and walled with lumber affording ample protection. 



besides a number of American bolter mills and small 

 French portable rigs. 



One must see the enormous scope of the construction 

 work as well as of the military activities of the American 

 Army in France to appreciate its needs for forest pro- 

 ducts and the exceedingly important part they must play 



in winning the 

 war. The de- 

 mands upon 

 our section, in 

 quantities and 

 variety, pass 

 the compre- 

 hension of the 

 old-time mili- 

 tary c a m - 

 paigner. They 

 range from 

 100 foot piles 

 to fascines of 

 six foot twigs, 

 from bills of 

 dock and 

 bridge timbers 

 totaling five 

 million feet to 

 basswood cants 

 for the manu- 

 facture of arti- 

 ficial limbs by 

 the Red Cross. Construction lumber for barracks and 

 warehouses, standard gauge ties, and cordwood are the 

 great staples, of which we cannot produce too much. 

 Then come the heavy plank for artillery roads, telephone 

 and telegraph poles, short ties for light' railroads, and 



THE "CAPTAIN," WITH A LOAD OF LUMBER, STOPS TO LET US TAKE A PICTURE 



Bringing out the lumber for the construction of barracks and ware-houses, ties and cordwood, and the special effort to rush supplies for construc- 

 tion to the American base ports is a strenuous business, but our American boys are making good. 



