A MARITIME PINE OPERATION IN FRANCE 



WITH OUR FORESTRY ENGINEERS 



BY CAPTAIN JOHN D. GUTHRIE, A. E. F. 



LUMBER is a necessity to Modern War, lumber in 

 unbelievable quantities. The Forestry Regiments 

 came to France to help furnish lumber in the World 

 War and they are doing it with a vengeance. They are 

 doing it cheerfully, gladly, without any of the "glamour 

 and glory of war" to sustain their morale. 



Company of the Engineers, Forestry, is doing 

 its part and this article deals solely with the operations 

 and life of the one Company, only one of the many now 

 cutting and sawing lumber in France to help put the 



Hun where 

 longs. The details, the 

 lights and shadows of 

 the organization of 

 the Company, its stay 

 at Camp American 

 University, the trip 



Monday morning the woods crews were at work in the 

 nearby forest felling special timbers needed at once for 

 war uses. By Thursday of the same week the first tim- 

 bers were loaded by the Company for shipment. This 

 is believed to be the record for timbers for war purposes 

 for the entire regiment. The horses had not come, so 

 the wagons which had arrived with the troops were use- 

 less. However the wheels and axles of several heavy 

 dump carts were on hand, so not to be held up by such 

 a small thing as lack of horses for skidding, American 

 he be- 



across, its stop in England, its 

 stay in Central France, might 

 be of interest but have no im- 

 mediate direct bearing on the 

 story of Company 's logging 



resourcefulness came to the rescue, 

 and swinging one end of the logs 

 under the axles and some 15 to 20 

 men taking the places of horses, the 

 45 and 50 feet timbers were man- 



and milling operations. For obvious reasons it is best 

 not to tell where the Company is located suffice to say 

 that they are operating in the maritime pine region of 

 France, in a flat, sandy country, a part of France once 

 a waste of sand dunes but wisely reclaimed by the French 

 foresters, by forest planting, so that what was once 

 almost a desert is now one of the most productive parts 

 of entire France. This production consists not alone in 

 lumber from the immense forested tracts, but also in 

 naval stores, turpentine and rosins. 



Company landed in this part of France on a Friday 

 morning in late October, and on the following rainy 



hauled to the main wagon road where they were loaded 

 onto the heavy motor trucks and went to the railroad 

 shipping point and the rain fell steadily all the time ! 

 Were the men downhearted ? Not a bit. Here was work 

 they could do, work in the woods, here was the job they 

 came over to tackle, a job they knew, and although for 

 days wet to the skin, laughing and singing they went 

 to it. A few days later the horses came and then match- 

 ing up teams, trying out teams, and soon work settled 

 down into that of a logging camp. 



This camp was wet though the highest site that could 

 be found the ground was wet, everything was wet. 



67 



