FLYING ON WINGS OF SPRUCE 



135 







output, which is entirely insufficient, must be greatly 

 increased. Ordinarily many months of air seasoning 

 were necessary before the wood could be used for high- 

 class work, but the Government Forest Products Labo- 

 ratory has solved this problem by developing methods 

 of quick seasoning. The lumbermen of America will 

 make good on aircraft spruce supplies, as they have in 

 ship timber production, despite the I. W. W. and kin- 

 dred troubles. 



Yet it was a critical situation which had to be met. For 

 nearly three years before the United States took up the 

 challenge and actively entered the war, the agents of the 

 Allies had been buying aircraft spruce in this country. 

 Dry stocks on hand had been sold and shipped and more 

 than the annual output contracted for. When America's 

 aircraft program sprang into being, the spruce for the 

 planes was still growing in the forests. About the same 

 time, the Allies sought additional contracts, and on top of 

 all this the lumbermen shouldered the ship timber and 

 cantonment lumber orders. 



Every hindrance which inspired enemy agents could 



devise was put in the way of spruce production. Sabotage 

 and incendiarism, in which selfish labor were the tools, 

 brought a crisis in the mills and forests of the Pacific 

 Coast. Mills were set on fire, machinery tampered with, 

 spikes driven into selected trees and logs, and strikes 

 fomented. This was six months ago. Today the Loyal 

 Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, with nearly forty 

 thousand of members, holds sway and labor and industry 

 are successfully meeting the situation. To hold in check 

 the traitors and enemies, troops have been enlisted for 

 woods duty, and educational propaganda is being carried 

 on among the loyal workers. But work, energy, and 

 courage are needed to speed up the output and convert 

 the spruce now growing into aircraft wings in France. 

 Of the spruce forests themselves there is a wealth of 

 description and interest which cannot be told here. Botan- 

 ical characteristics, with technical facts on distribution, 

 are uninteresting to the average reader. With the emerg- 

 necy demand for aircraft spruce in mind, the ability to 

 visualize the spruce forests, with their new importance 

 and present activities is most to be desired. To do 



Photograph by Underwood & Underwood 



BOOMING LOGS FOR WARTIME USES 



Building a log raft on a small river in the Puget Sound region. After these logs are cut and hauled to the streams, they are made up into cigar- 

 shaped rafts, which are towed to the mills and shipbuildiag plants at central points. 



