CIRCULATION. APRIL. 4.500 COPIES. 



Canaaian Forestrp journal 



Vol. XII. 



April, 1916. 



(Printed at Kingston, Ont.) 



No. 4. 



Rebuilding Forests of France 



A Graphic Article Telling of War's Havoc on Great Woodlands 



— A Century of Labor Needed. 



{Translated for the Canadian Forestry Journal.) 



"From the woods of Ailly, there remain but a fezv mutilated trunks. It 

 is a field of desolation, levelled by shells. There no longer exists an inch of 

 ground that has not been overturned by explosives." 



The January issue of "La Science 

 et la Me," a review published in Paris, 

 contains a very interesting article on 

 the damages wrought to the forests 

 of France bv the war and on the 

 means and methods to be employed 

 for their reconstruction. The author 

 of the study is ^Ir. Louis Marin, de- 

 pute of Meurthe-et-Moselle, who is, as 

 may be in inferred by the reading of 

 his essays, an expert in matters con- 

 cerning the preservation of forests 

 and reforestation. We offer to our 

 readers a resume of the article, as 

 sufficient space cannot be spared for 

 its entire reproduction. 



After having alluded to the v/ay 

 with which the Germans are pillaging 

 those parts of the forests of France 

 where their armies are operating, im- 

 itating in this work of destruction, 

 their ancestors, the savage invaders of 

 1870, who unjustifiably and merciless- 

 ly laid waste the woodlands they had 

 frequented, Mr. Marin goes on to 

 iescribe how the forests have to be 

 necessarily treated by both sides in 

 this tremendous conflict. He savs : 



'■\\'hat have been, during the war, 

 the causes of our forests' destruction? 

 The building of trenches on the two 

 adverse fronts; the ravaging effects 

 of projectiles hurled by guns of all 

 calibers, which, in a hailstorm of iron^ 

 mow down everything before them, 

 breaking the trees and leaving, instead 

 of a thickly-w^ooded area, a mere 

 strip of land covered with dismantled, 

 trunks and dead snags; the construc- 

 tion by the engineering corps of 

 works of defense; the consumption of 

 firewood ; the erection of log shelters, 

 in short, of many works necessitating 

 an extensive felling of trees, and, fin- 

 ally, the hewing down of an enormous 

 number of trees of all sizes which 

 obstructed the range of the artillery."' 



Woods in Warfare. 



^Ir. Marin then recalls the explana- 

 tions he has given, in June, 1913, of 

 a bill submitted to the French Parlia- 

 ment concerning the protection of the 

 forests. He had then dealt with the 

 importance of the wooded regions in 

 warfare. When a forest stands in the 



