394 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



tervals to share their splendid gifts with "the boys." 

 Between times, in the different companies, impromptu 

 quartettes chant American favorites, accompanied, per- 

 haps, by a mongrel stringed orchestra. The "local 

 talent" is varied and is always an interesting and im- 

 portant part of any camp. 



The men that make up the forestry troops are a strong 

 and hearty type and their patriotism and their attitude 

 toward one another and toward their organization is 

 most admirable. Just to relate a single instance twenty- 



five men of one of the companies went out one evening 

 without orders and on their own free initiative cut one 

 hundred and twenty-five ties. One man can cut twenty- 

 five ties in a day here. The lumberjack, though he 

 represents a non-combatant branch of our great army, 

 has done and is doing his full "bit." His relative im- 

 portance to our success in this tremendous conflict is real 

 and each man in the United States forestry troops can 

 rightfully feel proud and happy to hold a place in this 

 branch of the service. 



i 



THE FORESTRY TROOPS IN FRANCE 



BY FRANCIS KIEFER, CAPTAIN, ENGINEERS, U. S. R. 



w 



HAT the American Forestry Troops are doing in 



France is told in a measure by the production 



report of April 30, which shows the following 



totals : 



Lumber 26,176,000 feetb.m. 



Piling 5,214 pieces 



Fuelwood 14,360 cords 



Standard Gauge ties 257,186 pieces 



Small ties 196,368 pieces 



Miscellaneous round products 1,099,368 pieces 



These figures may mean little or much depending upon 

 your view point. By that, I have in mind the conditions 

 under which the material making these figures was pro- 

 duced. Forest exploitation as generally conceived in the 

 States is a pioneer undertaking of the first order, accom- 

 plished in wild regions removed from the centers of 

 population, wherein pure sweat and brawn count more 

 for the success of the enterprise than any other factor. 

 This in a large degree is true and the training our men 

 of the woods have had in that respect is one of the 





^^^^Bfc r*WI 



ft 



reasons why they are able to boast of this accounting. 



As a sample of that, because it comes handy, I mention 

 the performance of the 20th Regiment Engineers. Upon 

 their landing in France, they started in as though the 

 success of the Allies depended entirely upon them. Ex- 

 actly eleven days after the th landed, they were actually 

 stacking ties on the railroad right-of-way in well estab- 

 lished fashion just as though they had been logging there 

 a year instead of only eleven days. They had mighty 

 little equipment then and carried the ties out by hand. 

 Moreover, thirty-five days after breaking camp at 

 American University and precisely eighty days after the 

 th was formally authorized, this outfit sawed their 

 first board in France. However, it wasn't a board ; it 

 happened to be a 2" x 4" which may be a mere matter of 

 chance, but there is some doubt about that feature of 

 it. The Major is rather suspected of having it purposely 

 cut to that dimension for convenient paper weight size. 

 At any rate he proudly uses his por- 

 tion of it for that purpose during the 

 short intervals he is at his desk. 



Mentioning "first boards," it should 

 be said that the first board cut in 

 France by the American Expedition- 

 ary Force Forestry Troops with a 

 sure-enough American mill came from 









Hi 



FORESTRY TROOPS IN FRANCE AT 

 MESS 



THTS IS WHAT MR. HOOVER DOES WITH 

 SOME OF THE FOOD HE SAVES. AT THE 

 LEFT IS SEEN A LOG RAMP AND FLUME AT 

 THE MILL OF COMPANY C, 10th ENGINEERS 

 (FOREST). 



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