754 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and a few does were close upon the heels of my 

 thoroughly alarmed pony, stepping every few moments 

 in my dragging lariat. It was useless to do more than 

 keep ahead of them the best way I could without being 

 jerked out of my saddle. The bulls crowded close 

 together, and every once in a while there was a fierce 

 racket as their antlers rattled together, which was more 

 ominous of my possible fate than exhilarating. As 

 necessity, or opportunity, offered, I downed one of the 

 big fellows, either with my carbine or a revolver ; and 

 in a very short space of time we were out again on the 



rolling foot-hills, where the herd made off to the west- 

 ward in loose order, leaving me and my pony behind- 

 very much bruised and rattled up generally. In no 

 pleasant frame of mind, I dismounted and scored 

 once more, as a parting shot, downing an old 

 bull who was then a few hundred yards away. Next 

 day the wagon party came up to the scene and 

 gathered them all in for the use of the garrison during 

 the winter. 



Note It was entirely due to lack of space that Dr. Shufeldt's flower 



article and Dr. Allen's bird article, which are regular features of the 



magazine, were omitted from the Nomebre issue of AMERICAN 

 FORESTRY. Editor. 



EDITORIAL 



AMERICA'S OBLIGATION TO THE FOREST OF FRANCE 



T? OR one hundred years the Republic of France has 

 -^ with infinite pains been engaged in creating forests 

 out of sandy wastes, reclothing with trees the barren 

 slopes of mountains and repairing the ravages of flood 

 caused by denudation of these slopes. 



With firm belief in what still seems to some Americans 

 an impossible ideal, the French people through their 

 Forest Service succeeded, solely through tree planting 

 and protective measures, in repopulating and rendering 

 habitable and prosperous, whole districts formerly aban- 

 doned to sands or floods. 



Under the stress of the war these forests, and with 

 them the security and livelihood of the local com- 

 munes themselves were undermined again and in many 

 cases destroyed. The loss of the forests by gun fire on 

 the battle front was unavoidable, and the character of 

 their destruction beyond the exercise of choice. But how 

 about the methods employed in cutting timber back of 

 the lines, which went on all over France, until the small- 

 est woodlots were searched out and the protection forests 

 in the Landes and on the high slopes of the Pyrenees 

 helped to feed the front? Do we realize what it means 

 to France that she opened the doors of her protective 

 forest barriers to her allies, how great a contribution she 

 made by this act to the common cause, and what effect 

 our methods of cutting might have upon these French 

 resources. 



The enormous consumption of wood by the armies in 

 France had to be met either by imports or by the utiliza- 

 tion of these French forests. Had it been a physical 

 possibility to ship wood from the United States to 

 supply our army, there would have been no question 

 as to our duty. But the U-boat warfare and the bulk of 

 wood products made such a plan impossible, and the 

 French agreed to sacrifice their carefully husbanded for- 

 ests, so that tonnage could be devoted to transporting 

 men and food. 



The least we could do under the circumstances was to 

 furnish the labor to get out our own wood supplies, and 

 to do as little damage to French forests as possible in 

 the process. America organized the 10th and 20th Engi- 

 neers (Forestry), to cope with this problem. 



Most fortunately for the reputation of our country, 

 the first officers to reach France to organize this service 

 were men trained in forestry, who fully appreciated the 

 French point of view, and knew not only the distinction 

 between a virgin forest and one which had been laborious- 

 ly produced during a century of care, but knew also how 

 to reap the harvest of mature timber without ruining 

 the forest itself and converting it into a barren waste 

 resembling some of our cut-over non-agricultural pine 

 stump lands. 



But we faced a very real danger in conducting this 

 work, through the urgent necessity of getting out wood 

 products at high pressure. The force of men and equip- 

 ment worked day and night records for production 

 were smashed daily- and still demand outran supply 

 and more wood was called for. Military necessity looked 

 only to the immediate present any sacrifices were 

 justified, that supplies were on hand when needed. 



The constant pressure, both by military authorities, 

 and by the lumbermen selected as officers of the 20th, was 

 to secure men skilled in logging and milling, who could 

 at once jump into the harness and produce lumber. In 

 the selection of officers for the 20th Engineers, men of 

 this type were chosen almost exclusively. 



The most striking difference between the French poilu 

 and the American doughboy is that the American is 

 careless of his possessions and tends to extravagance, 

 while the French waste nothing, and even in battle guard 

 their equipment against loss. To an even greater degree 

 this difference was shown in the war emergency cutting 

 of timber. The French foresters and woods workers never 

 lose sight of the future of their stands, and no one could 

 distinguish between their "war" cutting and the ordinary 

 operations of peace, except in the greater areas cut over. 

 But American lumbermen start with little conception of 

 conservative cutting. Their training leads them to neglect 

 and brush aside all measures which interpose the slightest 

 obstacles to speed and thoroughness in logging. If officers 

 of this type had been placed in complete control of cut- 

 ting, unrestricted either by French liaison officers or by 

 trained foresters from America, great damage might 

 have followed. 



