AMERICANS IN THE FRENCH FORESTS 



Addressed to the Members of the United States Forest Service 

 BY HENRY S. GRAVES, FORESTER 



I WANT to tell you something about the work of the 

 forest regiments in France, and something also of 

 other impressions I received of the war during my 

 period of service. I know that every member of the 

 Forest Service is doing whatever he or she can find to 

 do to contribute toward this great enterprise, an enter- 

 prise which means so much to this country as well as to 

 the whole world. I realize, too, that you are anxious to 

 know as much as possible of what is going on in France, 

 and what your friends and relatives are doing there. In 

 the limited space at my disposal I must confine myself 

 to the matters I think will be of most interest to you, 

 that can be discussed. 



My task in France was to prepare the way for the 

 Tenth and Twentieth Engineers and auxiliary troops 

 that were to go over to work in the French forests. An 

 organization to handle the work has been built up ; for- 

 ests have been secured, partly through grants by the 

 French Government, partly by purchase from private 

 owners ; a procedure for acquiring additional forests 

 has been established ; and the actual work of logging and 

 milling is well under way. Aside from the main head- 

 quarters, an effective district organization has been es- 

 tablished. When my work in France was completed and 

 I left for home some three or four months behind the 

 original schedule Major Greeley took my place at head- 

 quarters of the Lines of Communications in charge of 

 the technical forestry work, and Colonel J. A. Wood- 

 ruff, who has done such admirable work in organizing 

 the Tenth, was in military command of the forestry 

 troops. 



I shall try to take you with me in imagination on a 

 typical field trip in the French forests, such as I took 

 last October in company with Major R. E. Benedict, the 

 commanding officer of the district. Our object was to 

 inspect an encampment of a section of the Tenth Engi- 

 neers which had been established only a few days be- 

 fore. We drove in a Government automobile through 

 a beautiful forest country, over splendid roads lined with 

 sycamore trees, at that time of the year in yellow leaf, 

 with a background of green pines. (I wonder if we have 

 ever thought of planting sycamore in our pine regions 

 to get that effect). 



The people of the villages through which we passed 

 were quick to recognize the American uniform, chiefly 

 by our service hats, or "Pershings" as the French often 

 call them, and greeted us with the greatest cordiality. 

 Finally we came to a little village and observed near 

 the railroad station a crowd gathered to watch some 

 curious operation. Coming nearer, we saw a group of 

 husky American lumberjacks working up fifty-foot pines 

 preparatory to loading them on the cars. As we came to 

 a stop, Captain D. T. Mason, formerly of Missoula, 

 greeted us. These were the first trees cut in this dis- 



trict; they had been felled and taken out of the woods 

 within three days after the men had left the train which 

 brought them there and they did not have a single horse. 



Then we went on a little farther through the pine 

 woods to a beautiful camp. There were rows of Sibley 

 tents, and men moving here and there, all busy, all with 

 a definite purpose. Some were putting up shelters for 

 horses which they expected in a day or two. Captain 

 J. D. Guthrie and Captain I. F. Eldredge met us. They 

 told us how quickly the camp had been put up and the 

 men established, and how they had astonished every 

 one in that section by their speed. As we went about I 

 heard ringing through the French forests, "Watch out 

 below." Then a tree would crash down, and I would 

 know that another pile was being prepared for the docks 

 that are to receive the many troops and the great quanti- 

 ties of supplies that we are sending over there. 



I wish you could have seen those men in the woods. 

 They had had a long and trying trip across the water ; 

 they had been taken through France, not in Pullmans, 

 but in the only kind of cars available for transporting 

 them at the time ; they had to make camp in a hard 

 storm. Yet they accepted it as all troops in France are 

 accepting such conditions. And now, when they were at 

 last in the woods, they were swinging their axes, troubles 

 forgotten joyful, singing, shouting, happy, well every- 

 body working hard and thinking how his particular tree 

 was going to serve some particular purpose that would 

 help our soldiers to final victory. They had not waited 

 for horses ; they were picking up the logs by man power 

 and getting them out as best they could with the aid of 

 a logging truck improvised from a supply wagon. What 

 did they care whether they had horses or not ! They were 

 at their goal ; the work was right in front of them ; they 

 were eager to get at it ; and they were getting at it with 

 all their might. 



They were a fine body of men. Not all saints, of 

 course. There were two of them, for example, who had 

 been a little slow to pick up the military end, but whose 

 boast had always been that, while they might not be much 

 at drilling, they were "hell on cutting down trees." These 

 men, as it turned out, were the first crew to fell a tree 

 for the American soldiers in France. Not unnaturally, 

 perhaps, they felt that they ought to celebrate, which 

 they did, with the result that it took four men to put 

 them in the guard house. But the affair had its good 

 ending, for the local mayor ordered that no more liqueurs 

 be sold to men wearing the American uniform. Let it 

 be added that the men took this in good part, just as they 

 have taken in good part every other restriction necessary 

 for maintaining the highest efficiency. 



And they are doing other fine things, too. They are 

 endearing themselves to the people of the place where 

 they are at work. It means a good deal when a soldier, 



141 



