1150 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



at the port of Bassens, near Bordeaux. There were suf- 

 ficient tools to fell the trees, but only makeshift logging 

 equipment to get the piling to the edge of the hard road. 

 No horses had yet arrived. It was quite amusing to see 

 a forty-foot piling, suspended beneath the axle connect- 

 ing a pair of dump cart wheels, dragged through the 

 woods by ten men on a rope ahead while ten more men 

 with cant hooks helped along the sides. A drenching 



it was a beginning. The production of fuel wood from 

 limbs and tops and of barbed wire stakes from small 

 trees was under way. At this stage of the operations, 

 especially, it was difficult to secure railway cars in which 

 to make shipments. Throughout the war, France was 

 struggling with a car shortage partly caused by pre-war 

 planning by the Germans, as immediately before August, 

 1914, Germans bought great quantities of raw materials 

 of all sorts in France; the material was shipped to Ger- 

 many in French cars, and the cars were held. 



"The timber cut by the American troops was not 

 bought by the American Army direct from the French 

 timber owners. Timber acquisition procedure was some- 

 what as follows : An American officer assigned to forest 

 acquisition work in a given region would look around for 

 forest tracts suitable in character and accessibility for 

 American operations. He would report the suitable 

 tracts to the French officer having charge of forest work 

 in the region. The French officer, after making sure that 



THE SPEED WITH WHICH THE 20th ENGINEERS LOADED LUMBER TRAINS AMAZED THE FRENCH, AS DID MOST OF THE OPERA- 



TIONS OF THE REGIMENT 



rain was falling, but the men paid little attention, for at 

 last they were getting out timber. To move the piling 

 to the railroad escort wagon, running gears were rigged 

 up to carry the small ends while the butt ends were car- 

 ried on F. W. D. motor trucks ; three pieces were taken 

 in each load. It was almost impossible to run the trucks 

 slowly enough to be safe for the escort wagons, so when 

 the horses arrived a few days later, a four-horse team 

 and another escort wagon were substituted for the truck. 

 "Foundations were constructed so that the sawmills 

 might be set up as quickly as possible when they arrived 

 from America. Large quantities of logs were cut and 

 decked ready for the mills. Telephone lines were built. 

 Work was started on the installation of railway switches 

 and spurs. This preliminary work was all very neces- 

 sary, but the men were impatient to smell new pine 

 boards and sawdust. So to get some lumber production 

 started, even though small in amount, the night shift 

 of a French sawmill was leased ; this mill could produce 

 only about three thousand feet of lumber each night, but 



there was no sufficient reason why the Americans should 

 not have the timber in question, would estimate the 

 amount, appraise the value and mark the timber for 

 cutting. If the owner was satisfied to sell the timber 

 at a reasonable price, his figure would be accepted, but 

 if the owner asked an exorbitant price, the French officer 

 would fix a reasonable price at which the timber would 

 be requisitioned. The French government purchased the 

 timber and resold it to the American Army at cost. 

 Rights of way were obtained in much the same fashion. 

 This system undoubtedly protected the United States 

 from the serious overcharges which would have been 

 possible through our lack of knowledge of French tim- 

 ber values. The value of timber was astonishing to 

 Americans, used to prices of from two to eight dollars 

 per thousand feet on the stump for pine timber in most 

 parts of America ; it was found that the pine timber of 

 the Landes was costing from twenty to forty dollars per 

 thousand feet, depending upon quality and location ; 

 hardwood of similar quality in central France was even 



