THE TRANSPORT PROBLEM 345 



equipment for the flying squadron of forestry troops working in the 

 combat zone and for short sets in small timber at any point. It was 

 often combined with larger plants, for slabbing small logs into ties, or 

 moved into the woods after the large timber had been logged — to work 

 up small material. 



Heavy and Light Artillery in Timber Warfare. — All told, the Forestry 

 Section marshalled a battery of 27 large mills, 62 light mills, and 61 of 

 the little portables. These different types of sawmills proved to be well 

 adapted to operating requirements in the French forests, with their 

 wide variety in extent and in the size and quality of their timber. They 

 also afforded well-balanced equipment for the numerous and varied 

 demands of military operations. Sawmills, like artillery, must be adapted 

 to work at different ranges from the trenches. The heavy, or com- 

 paratively permanent, mills were well fitted for long-time operations near 

 permanent depots and base ports where continuous hard driving to 

 produce the maximum quantity of lumber was of the first importance. 

 The other types proved well adapted to the more temporary operations 

 in which mobility and speed in setting up were the principal factors. 

 With this complement of sawmills the Forestry Section kept from 80 

 to 90 milling operations going continuously, several of which employed 

 two or more machines. A 30 per cent excess of sawmills is none too 

 great for keeping an army supplied with timber under the strenuous 

 conditions which existed in France. New mills were being installed 

 constantly up to the day of the armistice and it was essential that this 

 be done without stopping production at the established plants. 



The Transport Problem. — First and last, the toughest problem in 

 practical lumbering which the forest engineers had to overcome was the 

 transportation of logs from woods to sawmill and of piling, poles, etc., 

 from woods to railroad shipping point. Its difficulty was increased by 

 the many different kinds of ground and topography which were en- 

 countered. In southern France it was a succession of flat sand plains, 

 with occasional stretches of sand so loose as to make wheel traction 

 very difficult. In the hardwood forests on the plains and hills of central 

 and eastern France, the great obstacle was bottomless clay mud which, 

 in its frequent state of saturation from weeks of continuous rain, defied 

 almost any kind of traction put upon it. 



In the fir forests of eastern France the logging conditions were more 

 like those of the Adirondacks or the White Mountains. There was 

 much good logging ground, some steep grades, bad patches of rock and 

 moss, and occasional "sled snows" in wintertime. To find the right 

 equipment for each job was not easy. The rough and ready mechanical 

 skill of the American lumberjack was never displayed to better advantage. 

 Spool skidders and 4 and 8 wheel log wagons were the mainstays, the 



