712 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Early in the war France, just as England, was able to 

 import considerable quantities of lumber. By 1917 ship- 

 ping could no longer be spared for the purpose, and at 

 the same time, especially through the entry of this coun- 

 try in the war, the requirements for wood products were 

 enormously increased. It was then that France opened 

 her forests to the Allies. 



Canadian forestry companies were transferred from 

 England and Scotland to France with their saw- 

 mills and logging equipment. American forestry 



France's Forest 

 Resources 



Relatively speaking, France has 

 extensive forests. These she has 

 built up by years of thrift and care- 

 ful forestry. Areas formerly de- 

 nuded were reforestered, abused forests were gradually 

 brought into productive condition and from year to year 

 France was increasing her home production of forest 

 materials. The total of land classed as forest in France 

 aggregates nearly twenty-four million acres. Of this 

 only about one-third, or eight million acres, is classed 





Underwood and Underwood British Official Photograph 



LAND TO BE REFORESTED 



Great atretcbei like this in northern France remain showing some of the vast work of reconstruction which must be undertaken to put the 

 country back on its feet again. This shows British soldiers on the battlefields near Ypres setting out to put up wire entanglements. 



regiments were organized and about eighteen thou- 

 sand of our foresters and lumbermen were soon 

 operating in France. 



In addition to the American and Canadian loggers 

 and millmen, there were large forces of French engi- 

 neers, civilian lumbermen, foreign laborers, and German 

 prisoners working in the forests. 



as high forest, that is, forest producing primarily trees 

 of the larger sizes and better quality. About twenty-five 

 per cent of the forest is so-called coppice, or hardwood 

 sprouts, grown on short rotations of twenty-five to thirty 

 years, chiefly for fuel. The balance is a combination of 

 two forms of forest, an understory of coppice with a 

 light cover of older trees, called coppice under standards. 



