1148 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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HEADQUARTERS OF THE AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN THE 

 VICINITY OF PONTENX, IN ONE OF THE GROUP OF SCHOOL 

 BUILDINGS ON THE PONTENX VILLAGE GREEN, LANDES, 

 FRANCE 



As fast as equipment arrived it was divided between the 

 different units ; as soon as there was sufficient equip- 

 ment on hand to permit work to begin, the units pro- 

 ceeded to their stations, which were reached just before 

 November 1. Only a comparatively small part of the 

 logging equipment and no complete sawmill units had 

 accompanied the regiment on the Carpathia, so the first 

 work was necessarily to be limited to that preparatory to 

 sawmill operation and to that of producing timber in 

 the round. 



"The writer was assigned to the work of taking the 

 motor train of the First Battalion across country from 

 Nevers to Pontenx, a small village about sixty miles 

 southwest of Bordeaux. The three days allowed gave 

 just time enough to make the three hundred sixty mile 

 run, .for the heavy trucks could do only about twelve 

 miles per hour, and lack of lights limited the running 



time from six in the morning to five at night. It was 

 a beautiful trip over finer roads than any of us had ever 

 traveled before. The first two days of the trip led 

 through a decidedly hilly country, with fine hardwood 

 forests scattered about here and there. Most of the route 

 followed the French national highways, which usually 

 have a hard surface of water bound macadam about 

 eighteen feet wide, on each side of which is smooth turf 

 about ten feet wide for columns of marching men when 

 need arises. The roads are almost everywhere lined by 

 splendid trees which are made to swell the incomes of the 

 communes which own them; chestnut, cherry and other 



rravn3&S!! T S2S PS AT THE BELLEVUE CAMP IN FRANCE 



L *?, E Ji,H T f ^ E Sjyt F , U g E TO FEED H0GS - RAISED THE HOGS AND 

 AUGMENTED THEIR COMPANY FUNDS BY SELLING THEM 



THESE LOADING CRANES WERE USED FOR TRANSFERRING THE 

 LUMBER FROM NARROW GAUGE TO BROAD GAUGE CARS IN 

 MANY OF THE SHIPPING YARDS OF THE 20th REGIMENT 



fruit trees yield their annual crops, and finally their tim- 

 ber ; in Southern France, cork oak trees furnish crops of 

 bark every eight or ten years ; Lombardy poplars, locust, 

 sycamores and others are valuable mainly for their tim- 

 ber; all add greatly to the beauty of the highways. 

 Along much of the route the French had seen no Ameri- 

 cans before, and our welcome was the more hearty for 

 that reason. The motor train reached Pontenx just 

 before the arrival of the train loaded with troops, sup- 

 plies and equipment." 



A picture of the men in their camps, of the way in 

 which preparations were made for their living and for 

 the lumber operations which they were anxious to start 

 as promptly as possible, is given by Major Mason, who 

 says: 



"The first day in the 'Landes,' as the pine forested 

 region of Southwestern France is known, was an espe- 

 cially busy one. The railway cars had to be unloaded 

 and released immediately and camp established in the 

 pine forest four miles away. Fortunately, a bright, 



