1236 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



military purposes in France. Military contingents from 

 the Dominions over seas were required to carry on lum- 

 bering operations on a scale large enough to supply the 

 war industries. It was to help out this serious situation 

 that the New England Saw Mill Units were organized. 



The small timber supplies of Great Britain have been 

 very heavily depleted by the war cuttings and these con- 

 ditions have awakened the country to the need of larger 

 areas of forests. The Reconstruction Committee of Great 

 Britain have recommended the establishment of a For- 

 estry Department in the Government whose duty it shall 

 be to support a public policy of timber growing, adequate 

 for the country. This Department was established prior 

 to the termination of hostilities. 



The headquarters of the New England Saw Mill Units 

 was at Ardgay, Ross-shire, Scotland, a village at Bonar 

 Bridge Station on the Highland Railway, about fifty miles 

 north of Invernes. A storehouse was built for the sup- 

 plies needed for the mills and camp kitchens. Here the 

 headquarters was located and the supplies for the men 

 and horses were checked out to different units each 

 week. All mills were located within five miles from 

 headquarters, three operating on a timber tract purchased 

 by the Government from Andrew Carnegie in Souther- 

 land-shire and seven operating in a tract bought from 

 Sir Charles Ross, in Ross-shire. These tracts were esti- 

 mated to carry about 6,000,000 and 18,000,000 board feet 

 respectively. The saw mill equipment arrived about the 

 middle of July and lumber production got under way 

 in August. 



When manufacture first began in August the lumber 

 produced was sent to port for shipment to France. Later 

 in the fall specifications for France were cancelled and 

 from then on practically all shipments were made for 

 British war industries. About 60,000 railroad ties were 

 railed from our loading bank at Bonar Bridge and a large 

 amount of 3 and 4-inch dimension timber was made. A 

 considerable part of the dimension timber was cut for 

 special requirements. Very little lumber was wasted in 

 the slabs, as round edge boards were taken off the outside 

 edge of the logs when sawing dimension material. A 

 great deal of pitwood was produced in the woods opera- 

 tions for use by the colliery companies. These were made 

 from the tops and large limbs. This pitwood was graded 

 into 3, 4, 5, and 6-inch diameter sizes, the length ranging 

 from 6 to 14 feet. In cost accounting it is considered 

 that one lineal foot of pitwood is equal to one board foot 

 of manufactured lumber. The total production by the 

 New England Saw Mill Units was 19,673,100 board feet 

 of lumber and pitwood. t » 



Sir John Stirling Maxwell, under whose direction the 

 New England Units worked in, said of them : "The 

 ten mills played a notable part in providing fcr Great 

 Britain's timber needs. Their output man for man 

 through the twelve months of your stay has been the 

 highest that any operation under the charge of the De- 

 partment can show. The type of mill you brought over, 

 standing as it does midway between the large mills of the 

 Canadians and the small mills of this country, has proved 



admirably adapted to the timber you had to work and 

 most economical of labor. While admitting the great 

 benefit derived from the larger type of mill in providing 

 the armies in France with quick supplies of trench timber 

 and railway ties when speed was everything, most experts 

 are agreed that the smaller type is likely to prove best 

 in normal times in a country like this where the blocks 

 to be felled are small and economy is the first object. 

 Your mills represented a compromise between the two, 

 singularly apt to the moment of your arrival. It would 

 be easy to expatiate on the international value of your 

 timely aid. It is on such acts that friendships are built. 

 A gush of praise or gratitude can only spoil them and 

 there has been nothing in the attitude of your colleagues 

 or yourself to invite it. New England saw her help was 

 needed and she gave it and we welcomed it. That is all. 

 I>ut you and I know that we have not worked together 

 without losing some oid prejudices for which newspapers, 

 tourists and the too wide Atlantic are responsible, or 

 without realizing how refreshing and fruitful the inter- 

 course of friendly nations can be when they speak the 

 same tongue and value the same things." 



CTATE Forester Alfred Gaskill, of New Jersey, has 

 ^ announced the purchase of 1,400 acres of timber land 

 in Woodland township, Burlington County, by the State 

 Department of Conservation and Development of New 

 Jersey. This land increases the area of the Lebanon 

 State Forest and joins several detached state-owned areas 

 into a compact unit capable of more efficient management. 

 There are now six state forests in Burlington, Ocean 

 and Sussex Counties, each under the charge of a resi- 

 dent forest ranger. The forests are being protected from 

 fire and abuse, the production of timber is aided and en- 

 couraged, technical forestry studies and experiments of 

 value are carried on, timber and wood products are sold 

 when their removal is beneficial to the forests, and mads. 

 trails and camp sites are developed for public use. 



J GERRY CURTIS, for some time past Assistant 

 * Forester of the city of Pittsburgh, has been ap- 

 pointed Forester and landscape engineer for the Carnegie 

 Steel Corporation, in charge of the extensive work in 

 planting, etc., now under way in connection with the 

 construction of several hundred new homes for employees 

 of the mills. A "home beautification" policy has been 

 adopted and the streets are to be lined with shade trees, 

 the front-yards dotted with flower beds and shrubbery 

 masses, while fruit trees and berries are to be used ex- 

 tensively in the back-yards. The back-yard fences in 

 the older settlements also are to be removed and hedges 

 of barberry substituted. Back-yard garden clubs have 

 been organized and prizes will be awarded each year for 

 the best vegetable and flower gardens. The fact that 

 special stress is to be laid on the training of the children 

 in the care and protection of trees, shrubs and flowers 

 plants promises well for the success of Mr. Curtis' plans. 



