WAR CONSUMING BRITAIN'S FORESTS 



597 



represents only a feature of the total, especially 

 in these days when military science orders that 

 front line trenches should only be lightly held. 

 Behind are the much more elaborate dug-outs. 

 In the original trench the danger experienced 

 was that of rain bringing on a landslip. The 

 occupant in more than one instance was buried 

 up to the shoulders in earth, and shot by the 

 enemy before he could be extricated. In the 

 early dug-out many lives were lost by shrapnel 

 and splinters. From these they are now forti- 

 fied by a roof built of heavy beams laid side by 

 side. Let it be realised what a consumption of 

 timber this means. Yet, practically speaking, 

 there is no choice as to material. Steel is possi- 

 ble, but is in too much demand for actual fight- 

 ing stuff. Cement has been tried, but will not do. 

 " On the road behind the lines there is an 

 immense employment of heavy timber, without 

 which the present advance, for example, would 



By Courtesy of Country Life of England. 



AN IRISH AXEMAN AT WORK 



Country Life of England says: "The Irish are skilled men and have done good work They 

 have a slight tendency to desire change, and every now and then a man or two 'slips it,' as 

 their own foreman put it." 



passage over roads that in the fearfully wet 

 weather would otherwise have been impassable 

 to heavy military traffic. The Army is like a 

 monster which has to be fed continuously on 

 great shiploads of timber. The Home Grown 

 Timber Committee is in this sense a great 

 destructive agency, since it exists for the pur- 

 pose of feeding this tremendous appetite as 

 far as this can be done from home. Portugal, 

 Spain and France have contributed a vast 

 share. The demand is almost exclusively for 

 soft wood, which is so much easier' carried, 

 manipulated, sawn, nailed and so on than 

 hard wood." 



By Courtesy of Country Life of England. 



ENGLISH WORKING WITH A CROSS-SAW 



The English workman is more efficient with a cross-saw after a tree is felled than in felling 

 the tree and most of them are used for this work. 



T 



HE bark of black oak, or " yellow oak," 

 as it is often called on account of the 

 color of the inner bark, is now used for 

 dye-making. 



not have been possible. When the great 

 guns used by the Germans at Verdun 

 and by us to demolish their trenches 

 between the Ancre and the Aisne have 

 to be got forward, the only way to do it 

 is by temporary railway lines. Hence 

 the demand for sleepers. And every 

 sleeper signalises that a large tree has 

 been felled. Any intelligent student of 

 the daily war news will be able to imagine 

 without difficulty what a prodigious 

 quantity of timber is being used up for 

 this purpose alone. Nor can there be 

 much need to enlarge on the other mili- 

 tary demands for wood. It has been 

 used freely not only in bridge building 

 across rivers, but to make a bridge or 



A PORTUGUESE GANG FROM BRAGOS 



