968 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



LUMBER USED IN TRENCH CONSTRUCTION 



The sides of this trench of an advanced post of French troops along the Marne are braced by small 

 branches woven together and nailed upright of two and three inches in diameter. The dugout is roofed 

 with heavier timber. The trench shows the damage done by a German shell which exploded in it. 



feet thick, and twenty-one miles 

 in circumference was built and 

 is still standing and in good con- 

 dition. When the war broke out 

 this property, which is owned by 

 an Austrian nobleman, was taken 

 in charge by the French Gov- 

 ernment, under somewhat the 

 same conditions as the Alien 

 Property Custodian of the United 

 States took charge of the prop- 

 erty of aliens here, and as it con- 

 tained some fine stands of pine, 

 portions of its forests were 

 leased to the American Forest 

 Units and were cut. 



To appreciate the manner in 

 which the French, British, Ca- 

 nadians and Americans co-oper- 

 ated in the purchase of forests 

 and in their lumber production 

 it must be remembered that as 

 early as September, 1916, be- 

 cause of increasing difficulties of 

 transport, the British Army de- 

 cided it would be necessary to 

 secure its timber supplies in 



trict the nth Company had a 

 number of cases and fourteen 

 deaths, among the dead being 

 Corporal Charles J. Cumisky, 

 who devoted himself to attending 

 the sick men without thought of 

 his own physical condition. Even 

 after he had been stricken with 

 the disease, he continued to 

 work and finally fell exhausted 

 and died shortly afterward. He 

 was recommended for a Distin- 

 guished Service Medal. 



Within an easy run from 

 Tours by automobile, one may 

 see scores of fine old chateaux, 

 and among the most interesting 

 of these is the Castle of Cham- 

 bord. In the extensive grounds 

 attached to the chateau, a con- 

 siderable amount of forest cut- 

 ting was done. The story of 

 the arrangements for this cutting 

 is interesting. 



The castle was built during 

 the sixteenth century as a hunt- 

 ing lodge for the Royal family 

 and in order to keep the game 

 in and to keep the poaching 

 peasants out, a wall some ten or 

 twelve feet high and about two 



THE WELL KNOWN DUCK BOARD 



Each army made great quantities of these duck boards for the bottom of trenches and for muddy and 

 slippery ground back of the trenches. The British, after the armistice was signed, manufactured 1,000,000 

 of the ten foot lengths on which the duck boards were nailed. These cost seven francs each and the 

 British expected to sell them for no more than one franc each. 



