1190 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ers was a timber merchant from Landes. The Minister 

 of Agriculture agreed to send his Inspector General of 

 Forests to look into the troubles. 



The Inspector General and a party of French forest 

 officers arrived at Pontenx to visit the American opera- 

 tions. They went over the ground carefully, but found 

 no evidences of ruthless devastation. They found that 

 fire had been carefully controlled, that the methods of 

 cutting the forest followed absolutely those employd by 

 the French. They were much interested in the work of 

 driving the Courant River, and especially in the scheme 



camps; the kitchen was reached just in time to see the 

 cook take a big batch of fine brown cookies from the 

 oven; the hot cookies were greatly enjoyed, for such 

 things were then forbidden in French civil life. A loaf 

 of white bread, practically unknown in France for three 

 years, was given to the Inspector General ; this was a 

 most acceptable gift and was very pleasantly received. 

 After this visit no more complaints of American methods 

 were heard. 



The French sawmills, several of which were leased or 

 bought for American use during the first few months 



CANAL AND CAR BRINGING LOGS UP TO THE HOIST INTO TH 

 k LANDES, 



of drying out the trees in advance, for apparently the 

 practice of driving loose logs was unknown in the 

 streams of France. The larger mills were cutting at a 

 rate astonishing to the French, for they were even 

 greatly exceeding the regiment's own expectations. The 

 mechanical ingenuity, the power, and the rapidity with 

 which logs were reduced to lumber was admired by the 

 French. They shrugged their shoulders, however, at the 

 thick circular saws, for it gave them real pain to see so 

 much of their precious wood going into sawdust ; a few 

 moments, later, fortunately, their faces brightened when 

 they saw the sawdust automatically fed into the "dutch 

 ovens" as fuel, for the French are accustomed to drive 

 their sawmills by power secured from the valuable slabs 

 and edgings while the sawdust is generally a total loss. 

 A little later the party was shown through one of our 



E AUREILHAN MILL OF THE 20th ENGINEERS NEAR PONTEXX. 

 FRANCE 



after the regiment reached France, were objects of con- 

 siderable curiosity to Americans. Although a few of 

 these mills are housed in permanent brick buildings in 

 connection with turpentine stills, the typical mill of the 

 region was a very portable affair readily moved about 

 from one small cutting area to another. Usually the 

 main saw, which is frequently the only saw, is a very 

 thin, narrow band saw ; sometimes a thin circular saw is 

 used instead. The short logs, ten feet or less' in length, 

 are placed by hand on the light saw carriage ; a crank 

 turned by hand feeds the log against the saw. The lum- 

 ber is edged on a very small, light carriage, which runs 

 past the opposite side of the band saw from that on 

 which the log is sawn ; the board is held down on the 

 edger carriage by a hook at one end and by the hand 

 of the operator at the other. Generally no trimming is 



