SAWMILLS AND LOGGING EQUIPMENT 343 



fleets of motor trucks, barges, and shuttle trains of American cars on fixed 

 runs whenever they could be obtained. By indefatigable efforts and the 

 use of many expedients, the Department of Product and Shipment kept 

 the movement of lumber on current orders within 86 per cent of pro- 

 duction and the shipment of railroad ties within 72 per cent of the cut. 

 One officer who handled deliveries from a group of mills in the Landes 

 moved about 100,000,000 feet of lumber over a single railroad system in a 

 year's time, a record which would rank high in American lumber traffic 

 during normal times. 



The Timberland Department. — A fourth staff department at forestry 

 headquarters was responsible for obtaining the standing timber for 

 exploitation. It organized and conducted a reconnaissance to locate 

 suitable forests in practically all parts of France, including the Pyrenees 

 and the southern Alps; passed upon all proposed acquisitions; put desir- 

 able purchases or condemnations through the estabfished French agen- 

 cies; and threshed out the terms as to price and cutting requirements. 

 Officers of this branch represented the American Army on the inter- 

 allied committee which correlated and controlled all purchases of forests 

 for military requirements in the French Zone of the Rear. Through 

 other officers it also had access to the French Army organization which 

 controlled the disposal of forests in the Zone of the Advance. Between 

 September 1, 1917, and the signing of the armistice this department 

 acquired some 630,000,000 feet of saw, pole, and tie timber and 700,000 

 cords of fuel wood. Half as much more had been located and cruised 

 and was in process of acquisition. 



SAWMILLS AND LOGGING EQUIPMENT 



Early Makeshifts. — At the outset the forest engineers were sadly 

 handicapped by the delay in the arrival of their sawmills and logging 

 equipment. Many were the expedients resorted to to make good this 

 deficiency. The first piles cut in the Landes were hauled to the railroad 

 by man power, on the running gear of army escort wagons. At another 

 camp ties were hewn with the most heterogeneous collection of axes 

 ever assembled and logged out by mule teams outfitted with bridles of 

 sacking — with 20-penny spikes for bits — and with harness of rope 

 and wire. Eight stationary French mills were taken over and operated. 

 These were little, under-powered affairs with very light saws. For a 

 carriage there was usually a little platform on miniature wheels on which 

 logs were fed to the saw with the bare hands or by a hand-turned crank. 

 Bolstered up and made over by the resourceful American mechanics, 

 five or six thousand feet a day was still all that most of these little plants 

 could turn out; and they were discarded as rapidly as American equip- 

 ment arrived. 



