1748 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1918 



War Needs Collide with French Traditions 



•^ Lieut. R. G. Lewis, who is with 

 the Forestry- Corps in France, and 

 who in civil life has charge of the 

 forest statistics work for the Forestry 

 Branch, Department of the Interior, 

 Ottawa, writes as follows: — 



"We have a French forester at- 

 tached to us in the capacity of in- 

 spector, chiefly I beheve to see that 

 we don't do too much damage to the 

 French forests in removing what the 

 British army has bought from the 

 French Government. He speaks no 

 English and his complaints received 

 scant attention at first as the damage 

 was usually done (and often concealed 

 before he could make his com- 

 plaint through an interpreter. I have 

 been inspecting with him for the last 

 few weeks and whenever his com- 

 plaints were not unreasonable I have 

 tried to adjust matters. Of course 

 it is absurd to suppose that in war 

 time when there is an urgent demand 

 forllumber of all descriptions, we 

 should take as much time to exploit 

 a coupe as the French bucherons do 

 in peace time. We can, however, 

 avoid unnecessary damage and still 

 keep up production and that is what 

 I am trying to accomplish. I alfeo 

 keep track of the progress of the 

 exploitation of each coupe and com- 

 pare our final figures with the French 

 service's estimates which are won- 

 derfully accurate. I manage to pick 

 up considerable valuable informa- 

 tion along forestry lines from the 

 commandant and from French lit- 

 erature he has recommended and 

 which I am translating. Taking il 

 all into consideration I believe I 

 may derive some benefit from my 

 transfer to the so-called Forestry 

 Corps after all. I have certainly 

 been convinced since I came to 

 France that we weren't taught 

 enough abou t French forestry methods 

 at the Faculty of Forestry. And I 

 am also convinced that some modifica- 

 tion of the French "selection" sys- 

 tem is more applicable to Canadian 



conditions than the more artificial 

 German methods." 



In a later letter Mr. Lewis says: 

 "I am still trying to keep the 

 peace between the demand for lum- 

 ber and the threatened destruction 

 of forest and have come to the con- 

 clusion that the man between the 

 devil and the deep sea had more or 

 less of a sinecure. But so far no 

 actual blows have been struck and I 

 have hopes that the war will end 

 before the opposing factors come to 

 actual violence. We keep our stumps 

 low, down to eight or ten inches 

 above ground, we pile our brush as we 

 go. We avoid logging with a donkey 

 and cable and I am sure the loggers 

 have learned to show the volunteer 

 growth more respect than it ever re- 

 ceived before at the hands of a Cana- 

 dian lumberjack. But of course from 

 a forestry standpoint without regard 

 to the war and its necessities, we do a 

 great deal of damage that could be 

 avoided. However, taking every- 

 thing into consideration, I do not 

 think we do any more damage than 

 is necessary considering the quan- 

 tity of timber we produce and the 

 speed with which it is produced. 

 And the constant cry is "More 

 production." 



"Do not leave a fire until it is out. 



After the fire is surrounded by a fire 

 trail, and back-firing has been done, 

 the crew should be put at work 

 covering all burning logs and stumps 

 with earth. If available, water 

 should be used to extinguish all 

 smoldering places along the fire-trail. 

 The crew should not be reduced too 

 rapidly, since a high wind may fan 

 the smoldering fires into flame which 

 will spread across the fire-trail and all 

 the work of days will be undone. 

 Keep one man on the burned area at 

 least three days after the balance of 

 the crew is disbanded. This is the 

 most important rule of all." — From 

 instructions to fire rangers of Cali- 

 fornia State Forester. 



