COOPERATION WITH FOREST AGENCIES 351 



which it needed, and the suspension of hostilities finds us with a sub- 

 stantial surplus which will be used for the restoration of France." 



COOPERATION WITH THE FOREST AGENCIES OF FRANCE 



French Organization of Timber Supplies for the War. — When the 

 advance guard of Forest Engineers reached Paris in 1917, they found 

 the French Government and Army highly organized for the procurement 

 of timber for miUtary requirements. Each of the French Army groups 

 carried a Forestry Service on its staff, with an elaborate organization 

 extending throughout its entire section of the Army Zone. This service 

 requisitioned existing stocks of lumber or wood, bought or requisitioned 

 forests, ran sawmills with German prisoners or French engineer troops, 

 and operated its own transport system for distributing forest products 

 to all units in the Army group. This was a purely military organization 

 which exercised practically absolute control over all forests and forest- 

 grown materials in the territory designated as the Army Zone. 



A distinct organization functioned in the Zone of the Rear, under 

 the Minister of Munitions. It centered in the Inspector General of 

 Timber who directed the activities of some twenty "timber centers" 

 embracing all parts of France outside of the Army Zone. Each timber 

 center consisted of a group of French engineer or forest officers who 

 purchased or requisitioned forests, operated sawmills with prisoners of 

 war or mihtary labor, and largely controlled the disposal of timber 

 products cut by private agencies. They were authorized by a war-time 

 decree to requisition 75 per cent of the output of any sawmill at a scale 

 of prices fixed by the Inspector General and also made contracts for 

 railroad ties, piling, barracks, and other special products needed by the 

 armies. This was a civilian organization, although made up largely of 

 militarized personnel, responsible to the French Cabinet and obtaining 

 and distributing its timber in accordance with the programs formulated 

 by the Minister of War and Minister of Munitions. 



The Service of Waters and Forests under the Department of Agri- 

 culture maintained its customary organization and functions during 

 the war, although with ranks sadly depleted by the call to arms. It 

 administered all of the State forests and the great bulk of the communal 

 forests and forests owned by public institutions. Its guards and rangers 

 were to be found in practically every forested canton of France; and its 

 inspectors and conservators represented an exceptionally intelligent and 

 expert corps of foresters who rendered assistance of the utmost value 

 to the allied armies in locating suitable supplies of wood. They deter- 

 mined the maximum quantities of timber that could be cut from State 

 and communal forests without doing serious violence to their plans of 



