AMERICAN FORESTRY 



OUR SEED IN FRANCE 



The shipment of American tree seed to France was not received 

 as early as that sent to Great Britain. Hence the difference in 

 height. 



quite natural, therefore, that the French government 

 should decide to use our entire gift of twenty-five million 

 seeds for re-afiforestation in that region, and it is in the 

 newly constructed tree nurseries here that the French 

 foresters gladly point out the tiny seedlings of American 

 Douglas Fir which are soon to be transplanted to perma- 

 nent locations. All reconstruction in France goes ac- 

 cording to a carefully arranged plan and every site which 



will in the future be crowned with a little woodland of 

 American trees, has already been carefully chosen. One 

 cannot fail to appreciate the fine sentiment which actuates 

 the French ministry as expressed in the general order 

 which covered the selection of those sites: "The planta- 

 tions made from the seed presented to us by the American 

 Forestry Association," says the order, "should be located 

 in places readily accessible to the main travelled roads 

 and if possible on or near well-known sites, with the 

 view that such future forests shall remain as a monu- 

 ment to the partnership of France and America in the 

 Great War." 



Next to the defense of Verdun the battles fought over 

 the famous Chemin des Dames were among the bloodiest 

 of the war. So awful was the artillery fire that hardly 

 even a charred stump remains of the once thick forest 



A BIRD IthuiNG STATION IN FRANCE 



The wholesale destruction of the forests succeeded in drivmg 

 out most of the song birds. The New York Bird Society came to 

 the_ rescue by supplying scores of bird houses and feeding places, 

 which are looked after by the foresters. 



RECONSTRUCTING A FOREST NEAR THE BELGIAN 

 BORDER 



The Frencli forest officer is indicating a spot where a few of 

 the seeds presented by the ."Xnicrican' Forestry .Association have 

 been sown. 



along its slopes. This was one of the first sites chosen 

 for a plantation of American Douglas Fir, and it is in- 

 deed a particularly approi)riate spot; not only to com- 

 memorate t'he part played by our troops in the last of 

 those terrific struggles, but to mark the region supervised 

 by the American Committee for Devastated France, 

 whose splendid work of co-operation with the French 

 government and people still continues as one of the 

 finest examples of American confidence and encourage- 

 ment. The forest of Saint Gobain, the famous ruins of 

 Coucy-le-Chateau, dynamited by the retreating Ger- 

 mans, and many other places chosen for American tree 

 plantations are hardly of less historical interest, and will 

 be visited by tourists from all over the world. 



Farther north there was very little fighting, but the 

 German army cut every stick of available timber for its 

 own use. In the forest of Mormal stand nineteen forest- 



