THE FORESTRY TROOPS IN FRANCE 



395 



detachment, Company E, Engineers. Major- , 



on the other hand, claims the distinction for the, 2nd 

 Battalion, Engineers, of having sawed the first board 

 with the all mighty twenty thousand-foot daily capacity 

 mill. But that is a touchy 

 point, better left unsaid 

 perhaps, because there isn't 

 a man in the organization 

 that does not possess splin- 

 ters from the first board 

 and they all come from dif- 

 ferent mills and different 

 units ! It is not my pur- 

 pose to start a controversy 

 on who sawed the first 

 board, but simply to show 

 the spirit of friendly though 

 lively competition that ex- 

 ists, which illustrates the 

 force that the men are put- 

 ting into their work. 

 Nevertheless, I have start- 

 ed a controversy: Captain 

 insists upon the inser- 

 tion here of a corrected statement to the effect that the 

 honors go to Major , of the 1st of the 10th Engineers, 



SCENE AT ONE OF THE LUMBER CAMPS 



The housing is very substantial, and each camp has its own shower bath. 

 The men that make up the forestry troops are a splendid type and they 

 are kept comfortable and well cared for. Their patriotism and their 

 attitude toward each other and their organization is most admirable. 



regarding the "first" board from the twenty thousand-foot 

 mill. Here it is. It's inserted. At the peril of my life, 

 I have opened the discussion that never will be settled as 

 long as there are Forestry Troops alive to talk about it.. 



While sweat and brawn 

 enter into this sort of ac- 

 tion, impelled by inspired 

 determination to drive the 

 Kaiser into the last ditch, 

 it also involves a degree of 

 ingenuity, as in the in- 

 stance of improvising har- 

 ness with any sort of ma- 

 terial that may be at hand. 

 One of the Forestry units, 

 it doesn't matter which one, 

 its merely a sample of what 

 they all have done in one 

 way or another, failed to be 

 supplied with harness 

 promptly. Undaunted, the 

 boys set to making breast 

 straps of grain sacks, tugs 

 and reins of rope, and bits 

 for the makeshift bridles were made from 6oD nails. 

 In ordinary times one might have waited for the neces- 



TYPICAL ACTIVITIES AT ONE OF THE LOGGING OPERATIONS IN FRANCE 



Except for the tents, this scene might be. found at many smal. > t - n ^ n f;^ io -J uce th t he Sta Jood "so badVneeaU by^he' a nied 0f armlei Uraber 

 regiments in France where our American boys are working strenuously to produce ine wuuu j 



