ANOTHER FOREST REGIMENT FOR FRANCE 



689 



through saw mills and shaping them would rather be up 

 in the front line somewhere; but they are faithfully 

 shouldering that portion of the service which falls to 

 their lot, working with a will and ofttimes putting in 

 long hours. It is seldom that any of them work less 

 than ten hours a day. 



There is no doubt but that the new regiment which 

 will soon be on its way overseas, will live up to the 

 reputation already established by the American Forest 

 Regiments in France. They have shown some marvelous 

 accomplishments in production which opened the eyes 

 of our allied brothers in 

 arms, and they have also 

 introduced some methods 

 in logging and in manufac- 

 ture, as well as in lumber 

 conservation, which were 

 new to the French but 

 which won their praise and 

 their admiration. At the 

 same time much of value 

 in forestry work has been 

 learned from the experts 

 of Europe who had been 

 studying and improving 

 forestry methods for many 

 yeais. 



The adaptability of the 

 American Forest Regi- 

 ments to new conditions 

 was one of the surprising 

 things to the French. This 

 gives ample assurance that 

 the new men to be sent 

 over will "find themselves" 

 immediately upon their 

 landing on the other side. 

 That they will find a way 

 or make a way for getting 

 out all the timber that is 

 necessary, is a foregone 

 conclusion. 



The French were sur- 

 prised for one thing at the 

 large output from the 

 American sawmills. Plants 

 which were rated at a cer- 

 tain capacity doubled or 

 trebled the amount it was 

 supposed they could handle. Instead of 10,000 feet in 

 a day they turned out 25,000 or 30,000 feet. They 

 accomplished this in various ways. One was by the 

 operation of two ten-hour shifts. The way in which 

 these mills were driven night and day was one of the 

 large production methods. The use of thick circular 

 saws has permitted this driving quick results. The 

 French are accustomed to thin saws. This was slower 

 although it is not so wasteful of timber. As a matter 

 of conservation, therefore, the thin saws had been used. 



MAJ. DAVID T. MASON 



Maj. Mason spent one year in France in connection with the American 

 army's forestry work there, and is now in this country assisting in the 

 organization of the new force of foresters which is to go abroad. 



They did not produce much sawdust. But the Ameri- 

 cans showed that there need be little loss on this account, 

 that the sawdust could be utilized for fuel under the 

 boilers which ran the larger mills. The greater results 

 obtained by the use of thick saws, it was found, did not 

 conflict with proper conservation. 



Another important conservation measure which the 

 Americans put into operation was in connection with 

 the getting of the logs from the forests to the mills. 

 The French had not been accustomed to driving logs 

 loose in the streams. It was claimed that their specific 



gravity was too great and 

 that they were too heavy 

 to handle in this manner; 

 and so other means of 

 transportation were 

 adopted. These required 

 more man and team power. 

 The American forest work- 

 ers, however, began to fell 

 trees three months in ad- 

 vance of the time they 

 were to be moved. The 

 branches and leaves were 

 left on the trees and as 

 long as they remained con- 

 tinued to draw moisture 

 from the trunk. By the 

 time, therefore, that the 

 logs were ready for the 

 mill they had lost much of 

 their specific gravity and 

 were floated down stream 

 without any difficulty. This 

 along with many other 

 short cuts and labor-saving 

 devices which had been 

 seen in operation or learned 

 in theory in the United 

 States proved of inesti- 

 mable value in speeding up 

 the output of lumber and 

 in keeping Pershing's men 

 supplied with all they 

 needed. 



The way in which these 

 forest engineers of the 

 American forces built rail- 

 ways to move their pro- 

 ducts with greater facility and in much larger quanti- 

 ties than by simpler methods and the gain in efficiency 

 obtained thereby, was another feature of American 

 methods which appealed strongly to the French and 

 won their high commendation. It was found that in 

 spite of the preliminary work required in building log- 

 ging railroads, the ultimate saving in time and labor 

 and the greater results obtained more than compen- 

 sated for the original outlay. The American mills in 

 France have been running full speed. They have not 



