The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-05-07
Nottingham Young Man
Now in Camp in South
ern France
FRENCH METHOD
SEEMS LABORIOUS
Native People Very Polite, but Sensi-
tive, and Time Counts for but Little
with Them-Forests Kept Clean as
Parks in the States.

Mr.. and Mrs. j. Z. Gillett of Whit
ingham have just received a letter from
Richard A. Rossmeisl, who has had a
home with them the past IS years and
who enlisted in the engineer corps
about Feb. !. This is the first they had
heard from him since his landing on
the other side. 1t is dated in France
March % and reads, in part, as follows:
Dear folks at home:
As l have the time today | am 60
ing to write you another letter telling
YOU about myself and the country here.
a short time ago | wrote you a let
ter which / started in England and
finished here in France, but | was in
a different part of France at the time
and didn't know just what was what
and rather than carry the letter around
mailed if.
| have been transferred to a per
manent camp, far from the firing line
to the woods of southern or southwest
ern France near the Pyrenees mountains
! in a very pleasant part of the coun.
try. We are in camp in very large
| pine woods. q kind Of yellow pine but
not very large. Here is a country
where real forestry is practiced. Here
all forests are laid out in plots of GER.
tain size and every plot is separated
4 from the others by fire lanes so if q
forest fire breaks out it can be quick ky
handled and confined to certain
definite area. The trees are very quic /
growing, a few trees that have count
cd the annual rings are showing an ago
from 40 to - or 90 years.
All through the woods here besides
the fire lanes one finds roads laid out
80 as to make every part of the forest
accessible. There are however, bat few
signs of any extensive numbering activi
ties
Before the occupation by our troop.
the principal Industry was blazing the
trees for the pitch. All through the
forests on all sides one finds trees that
have Vshapcd gashes cut in them to LEI
the pitch ooze out. This notehing i.
! done by a tool shaped like an adj only
with N-shaped lip. \ man goes along
with this tool and cuts the bark dowr
20 the quick to a height OF about 8 fee
! from the roots and then close to tn,
roots he cuts out little piece of wood
Under this chip which he has cut ou
he drives N-shaPed piece of tin sucl
as KID would tap a tree. and then h,
sets an carthen pot under the tn
on the ground. After 4 period of tim,
a man comes along again with his adj
and chips the tree a little higher tni
time driving a nail into the tree ia
enough under the tin to hold the pot
which resembles q small flower pot
using the tin to hold the upper end o
the pot. This process continues unit
a channel Is cut up the tree to a heigh
Of oftentimes 10 or II feet
This seems to me very crude metho,
of getting the pitch, as it is so stick,
that 1T simply stays on the tree, leavin,
q sticky white mass, very little goin
INTO the pots and making the logs an
lumber very sticky and disagreeable t
handle.
The, last week | have been workin,
with the logs driving them down tn
river, or perhaps better term woul
be brook, being just about the size o
the Sucker brook at home, and it wa
such a wet job that / had to give i