Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1918 



1871 



War's Terrible Drain on Europe's Forests 



Bij Col. Henri) S. Graves, Chief Forester of the United States. 



If ever an argumeni was needed for 

 forestry, it is found in P'rance. Us 

 forests, developed by many years 

 of care, are available and usable 

 now in the hour of supreme need, 

 which shows the value of French 

 forestry in the past. It has befeki 

 very carefully administered. Prior 

 to the war, France imported much 

 of her timber and had many little 

 mills throughout the country to 

 supply local needs. This combina- 

 tion kept prices down, and the 

 general market has been supplied 

 l)y importation. When, therefore, 

 need suddenly arose to provide tim- 

 ber and fuel, not only for the French 

 j)eople and the French army but also 

 for the tremendous needs of the 

 American army, France was ready. 

 Drained of Timber. 



France and England, too, for that 

 matter, are going to be well drained 

 of timber by the war. It will take 

 them a long time to recover their 

 neglected forests. France will have 

 to import. England will have to 

 import. Norway and Sweden are 

 reported to have been cutting rather 

 recklessly, so that they may not be 

 able to continue their exports of 

 timber. It is said that 15,()(H),0()() 

 acres of forest in the Baltic Provinces 

 have been practically ruined by the 

 fighting between Germany and Rus- 

 sia. Germany has begun already 

 to exploit the Russian forests and 

 indeed had begun to do so before the 

 war. 



An enormous amount of timber will 

 be needed after the war for recon- 

 struction. This country is likely to 

 be called upon, and we have not in 

 this country any too extensive sup- 

 plies, nor have we been handling them 

 with too great regard for the future. 



The situation in France is about 

 as follows: 



From the Pyrenees Mountains to 

 the city of Bordeaux is a great pine 

 country (Maritime pine), which with 



our own pine forests provides from 

 75 to 90 percent of all the turpentine 

 used. This great plain reminds one 

 of Georgia. In places 85 percent of 

 the land is covered with forest. It 

 is held by private owners usually 

 in large hoklings. The methods of 

 extracting turpentine are much more 

 careful than ours, and as a result the 

 trees live many years longer. Clean 

 cutting is usually practiced over 

 areas of twenty-five to fifty acres 

 together. In France they sec that 

 the woods come up again to pine. 

 The new forest is started promptly 

 by the private owner. Under war 

 conditions owners in America will do 

 this to a much greater extent than 

 hitherto. 



Every Tree Paid For. 



South of this pine belt, the French 

 Government owns considerable tracts 

 of land mostly planted to pine along 

 the coast. In the rest of France 

 (45 percent of the countiV) the 

 forests are mostly on private estates 

 and have been carefully handled for 

 many years. It is in most respects 

 the same as our wood-lot problem. 

 Here, too, French Government for- 

 esters mark and measure the timber 

 for cutting. The timber for the 

 American army is purchased from the 

 Government and from the owners 

 of the estates, and it is a new con- 

 dition that our lumberjacks have to 

 meet when every small tree destroyed 

 is paid for, whether it can be utilized 

 or not. Our men have been doing 

 splendidly well, and the French them- 

 selves are delighted with the methods 

 and results. 



One of the great points in this war 

 is the generosity of the careful French 

 people in opening up their forests. 

 The French people are suffering for 

 fuel and timber supplies of all kinds, 

 and yet when the American army had 

 need of enormous quantities of rail- 

 way ties and piles and of lumber for 

 the construction of warehouses and 



