FORESTS INDISPENSABLE IN WAR 



BY J. W. TOUMEY 



DIRECTOR OF THE YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY 



VICTORY is with the army whose country has the 

 greatest iron mines and smelters, the largest areas 

 of waving grain and an abundance of wood. Of 

 all the products of the soil upon which the very life of a 

 nation depends in times of war, wood is the only one that 

 cannot be rapidly increased under necessity and by the 

 employment of adequate labor. Therefore, provision for 

 adequate national defense necessitates the maintenance 

 of vast reserves of timber throughout the nation, reserves 

 from which billions of feet can be drawn in a single year 

 if necessary to meet the needs of the army and navy. 



A sane and conservative development of forest re- 

 sources to meet the needs of the nation in times 

 of peace necessitates a constantly increasing in- 

 tensity of management of all absolute forest land 

 and the building up and maintenance of an enor- 

 mous forest capital. Please remember this forest 

 capital can be drawn upon in times of war and 

 may determine the fate of the nation. 



England has for centuries neglected her forests 

 and for generations has obtained most of the 

 wood used in her buildings and industry from 

 beyond the sea. The stress of war found her 

 with a meager forest capital, and New England's 

 sons, are today felling the remnant of the forests 



of that proud country that the empire may live. When 

 the somber clouds of war are lifted from Europe's bat- 

 tlefields and peace again rules over the earth, England's 

 lesson, learned in this bitter strife, will be taken to heart 

 by her people and forests will clothe her idle lands. A 

 forest capital, far beyond that of former days, will not 

 only add to her economic development in times of peace 

 but be developed and maintained to better insure her 

 against vital needs in times of possible future strife. 



France has been more far-seeing in her forest policy 

 and, next to Germany, has been the most successful na- 

 tion in Europe in the economic development of 

 her non-agricultural lands for the produc- 

 tion of timber. When the war broke out 

 she had a forest capital that under the neces- 

 sity of strife could be drawn upon for vast 

 supplies of wood necessary for mining, trans- 

 portation and trench construction, all vital 

 to her very existence. If the French had 

 had no forests at the outbreak of the war 

 France would be devastated today and the 

 nations of middle Europe feasting in the halls 

 of Paris. 



Even Russia, that great country of the North, 

 awakened from her sleep of centuries and now 



Copyright Underwood & Underwood, New York. 



AN AMERICAN LUMBERMAN AT HIS WORK IN FRANCE 



In the uniform which represents the Stars and Stripes this able-bodied Yankee is carrying on his share of lumber work in the French war zone. 

 I!! - . T 1 . mcn P a , ve gone to France with the regiments of foresters and lumbermen. The work of these men is making possible 



supply ot construction material for the Allied forces which could not be procured otherwise. Of similar importance is the fact that trained forest. 

 art preserving the trench forest* for future generations and at the same time facilitating the harvesting of the immediate supply. 



foresters 



