68 



Urge concrete slabs almost hidden by a new crop of 

 seedlings. "Here stood the shower bath," and so saying 

 he would express the acme of his admiration and won- 

 der at the efficiency of American lumbering. 



Nevertheless, the picture of this new kind of 

 "cut-over" land, indicates to us not only what Amencan 

 lumbering can accomplish, but something of what will 

 surtsly evolve in America with development of a real for- 

 est policv something of the stately beauty of the per- 

 manent forests made economically practicable through 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



you there, but as it happens I have just completed a 

 trip through the region, and so rapidly has the new 

 growth advanced that I was myself unable to distinguish 

 the exact localities." It seemed, however, that a little 

 farther west, in the fir country upon the very border of 



A FINE POINT IN CONSERVATION 



This fine oak on the edge of one of the American cuttings near 

 Blois was reserved because its high grade timber was thought 

 to be more valuable for making veneer than for bridge timbers 

 or railway ties. 



the location of the producing areas near our great east- 

 em markets for lumber consumption, and something of 

 how the higher costs of scientific cutting may be met, 

 not by the home builder, but through the saving of trans- 

 portation costs which now make up more than half the 

 price of all wood. 



Over in the Vosges Mountains we find much the same 

 story. Upon the presentation of proper credentials from 

 the Ministry of Waters and Forests the regional chief 

 greeted us with the utmost French courtesy, but at the 

 statement that we wished to visit certain American 

 cuttings a look of real disappointment crossed his face. 

 "Monsieur," he said, "I should be only too pleased to take 



CAN AMERICAN LUMBERMEN BEND THEIR BACKS? 



A French district forester and one of his rangers standing 

 upon the stump of a large oak tree cut by the A. E. F. lumber- 

 men. Here where the young oak seedlings had already ob- 

 tained a good start the forest authorities permitted the last 

 of the older forest to be removed. 



Alsace, the cuttings had been heavier, the immediate 

 necessity for large quantities of timber for the trenches 

 of the Toul Sector having made necessary what he 

 termed abusive logging. Here, to be sure, we found 

 the scars readily enough especially under the guidance of 

 two rangers who had personally chosen and marked the 

 trees to be cut. Sadly they indicated the almost bared 

 patches. Two few trees had been left, they said, and the 

 wind had since blown them down, but we saw only 

 the broken or uprooted stumps. Trunk and branches had 

 some time since been removed for sale at a small loss in 

 order to reduce the fire hazard. How casually they re- 

 ferred to long standing forestry principles which we are 

 just beginning to apply. 



The trail of the 20th Engineers eventually brought us 

 to the pineries, south of Bordeaux, plantations made two 

 hundred years ago to protect the inland vineyards from 

 the drifting dune sand. Here had been several good- 

 sized mills, an American logging railroad, and complete 

 American management. The men had worked as in our 

 own pine country, clean cutting the forest block by 

 block. Except, perhaps, for a little extra care in leaving 

 low stumps, and for the possibility of utilizing smaller 

 top logs, they might have been at home and these might 

 have been the fcwests of South Carolina, or Mississippi 

 or Louisiana. Yet mile upon mile of thick new growth 



