Yale Forestry Class in the Woods 



r.Y James L. Goodwin 



OXK morning early in March, thirty of us, en- 

 thusiastic Yale Forest School seniors, awoke 

 to gaze from the windows of our special sleeper 

 at the little mill town of Clarks in northern Louisiana, 

 upon which the sun was shining with a warmth and 

 brilliance which we had not felt for many weeks. This 

 town and its surrounding woods 

 was to be our home for three 

 months, and here, according to 

 the annual custom of the Forest 

 School, we were to put into 

 practice the principles of for- 

 estry acquired in the lecture 

 room and learn from the actual 

 operations in the woods and the 

 mill how the tall pine trees of 

 the forest are converted into 

 lumber for our towns and cities. 

 We were not long in starting 

 on a tour of investigation of our 

 new surroundings. The first 

 point of interest that attracted 

 our attention was the general 

 supply store, over whose wide 

 doorway was written in big let- 

 ters, "The Louisiana Central 

 Luinber Co.. and in and out of 

 which sauntered in leisurely 

 southern fashion long, lanky 

 lumbermen and negroes, while 

 a group of farmers whose 

 horses were hitched to various 

 trees and posts in the vicinity 

 stood on the front steps and dis- 

 cussed the crop and timber out- 

 put and vigorously chewed tobacco. Next to the store 

 stood the hotel, a large white building, with vine-covered 

 verandas reaching to the roof and a small green lawn 

 in front, surrounded by a picket fence, and in which 

 a row of rose bushes was already beginning to show 

 signs of life. In front of the hotel ran a broad, dusty 

 roadway which, before it ended in the ])ine woods 

 a half mile beyond, was lined on each side by small, 

 one-storied houses where the mil! employes lived. A 

 library building, a less pretentious church and a two- 

 storied wooden house that was used as a dispensary and 

 infirmary completed the list of buildings on Clark's 

 main street. Adjoining on the left and covering as 

 much space as the town, stood the sawmill, its long 

 alleyways ])iled high with various sizes and grades of 

 yellow pine lumber, its tall chimneys and refuse burner 

 emitting black smoke, and the ever-busy saws on its mill 

 floor and in its ])laning shed sending out to the warm air 

 a continuous buzz and hum. 

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After hastily swallowing a scanty breakfast at the 

 hotel, we embarked on the special train, consisting of a 

 caboose and engiqe, which the company had provided, 

 and were taken 8 miles over the logging railroad to 

 the site which had been selected for our camp. 



A half hour's run brought us to our destination and 



CAMP OF THE YALE FOREST STUDENTS 



Here in the depths of the lonely Louisiana pine woods, the boys made their camp of fifteen canvas 

 houses, includng a cook shanty and bunkhouse, each tent being fitted with a wooden floor and 

 made thoroughly comfortable. 



we landed bag and baggage. Here ground had been 

 cleared and a cook shanty and bunkhouse built, and at 

 once we set to work laying floors with lumber that had 

 been provided by the company, and raising tents, so that 

 by nightfall this lonely spot in the depths of the pin^ 

 woods was suddenly transformed into a settlement of 

 fifteen canvas houses. 



Next day work began. It was divided into two parts: 

 the forestry work and surveying, and a study and written 

 report on the lumbering operations in the woods, and on 

 the work in the mill at Clarks. 



For the first six weeks surveying with transit and 

 level was carried on over the neighboring roads within 

 a radius of 12 miles, while in the woods land lines were 

 run by crews of six with a chain and surveyor's com- 

 pass to re-establish old section and township lines and 

 corners. Later a timber estimate was made by sections 

 of an area of approximately 50 square miles, and a map 



