1318 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



AM ATTACK OF THE ITALIAN INFANTRY ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND ON A HIGH PLATEAU. 

 THE BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS HAVE BEEN BROKEN OR LOWERED BY THE 

 ARTILLERY FIRE, PERMITTING THE TROOPS TO PASS THROUGH. THE FORMER VEGETA- 

 TION HAS BEEN ENTIRELY SWEPT AWAY BY GUN AND SHELL FIRE OR CUT OFF AND 

 UTILIZED FOR FUELWOOD, SHELTER, TRENCH TIMBERS AND OTHER PURPOSES, BY THE 

 TROOPS. 



ber of armed guards that go with them. It was quite a 

 customary sight to see only one armed Italian soldier 

 guarding a bunch of prisoners. Asked about the danger 

 of escape, almost always the invariable answer was that 

 the men were so happy and contented that there was no 

 danger whatever of their attempting to get away. Their 

 only fear was a possible exchange of prisoners, in which 

 case, there was anything but a pleasant prospect in 

 store for them. The casual traveler in Italy was 

 struck at once with the seri- 

 ous need of reforestation that is 

 apparent almost everywhere. The 

 ever-present rugged mountain 

 topography in the Swiss and 

 Savoy Alps of the north, the 

 Apennines running almost the 

 entire length of the peninsula, 

 the Calabrian range in the south, 

 and the mountains of Sicily pre- 

 sent many glaring needs of re- 

 forestation. Added to this situa- 

 tion, the Italian forestry officials 

 have been forced to cut many of 

 their splendid forests to meet 

 the great war emergency. Aus- 

 trian prisoners have, in many 

 cases, been used to reforest these 

 cut-over areas. Many of them 

 have already had experience in 

 reforestation activities in Aus- 

 tria and so are proficient in the 

 work. The Italian forestry of- 

 ficials have adopted an excellent 

 plan, that of replanting immedi- 

 ately all areas cut over, and every 

 effort is made to bring back the 

 denuded areas to a well-timbered 

 state once more. Many experi- 

 ments have been made in refor- 

 estation at the Royal Experiment 



Station at Vallambrosa, where 

 there are seven nurseries, total- 

 ing about eighteen acres, and 

 which have a capacity of about 

 one million plants a year. As a 

 result of these experiments, they 

 have found that Abies Pectinata 

 (Silver Fir) will produce the 

 best results. For the past three 

 years, before the war ended, Aus- 

 trian prisoners had been prepar- 

 ing the seed beds at some of the 

 State forestry stations in the 

 Apennines, as well as doing the 

 actual work of transplanting and 

 field planting. In the seasons of 

 the year when there is no plant- 

 ing or nursery weeding, or other 

 work associated with reforesta- 

 tion to be done, the men are 

 employed about saw mills and in woods work, cutting 

 down the mature timber, and on the work of transporting 

 the logs to the mill, and in road and construction 

 work associated with the general improvement of the 

 forests. 



Aside from silver fir, in some locations Norway spruce 

 and Scotch pine are used for reforestation and to a 

 limited extent some chestnut is planted. There is con- 

 siderable beech on the higher mountains of Central Italy 



Photograph by courtesy of the Italian General Headquarters 



ITALIAN INFANTRY IN ACTION ALONG THE PIAVE RIVER FRONT BELOW NERVESA WHERE 

 THE AUSTRIANS MADE ONE OF THEIR THREE CROSSINGS IN THE BIG OFFENSIVE OF 

 JUNE 15. 1918. NOTE THE CROOKED CHARACTER OF THE TRENCHES IN ORDER TO RENDER 

 AS INEFFECTIVE AS POSSIBLE ARTILLERY FIRE DIRECTED AGAINST THEM. THE BRUSH 

 IS AISO PILED TO DISGUISE THE EXACT LOCATION OF THE TRENCHES. THE RIVER 

 VARIES FROM ONE QUARTER TO OVER A MILE IN WIDTH BELOW THIS POINT. 



