Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-03-28

DIVISION OF the S1Snal COIpS, ". D.
Army Our squadron the 452nd num-
bering something like 40 strong ar
rived here February 22nd and as soon
as the tents. which are our living
quarters, could be put into shape, we
were divided up into different gangs
according to our adaptation, such as
Swampers, Buckers, Fallers, etc. The
swampers then cut down all the
thick underbrush, grub old swamps
and trees, remove fallen trees and
grade the roads, with the good old
fashioned nnattock and shovel, such
method being necessary on account
of decayed vegetation having accum-
ulated during the past centuries to
such a depth that it is Impossible to
use horses and other modern grad
ing machinery, miles of these roads
which are already built and others
that are in the process of construc-
ton will be corduroyed or planked in
the near future, so the army trucks
may transport the spruce that is to
go into the construction of the aer-
oplanes, out to the mills, one of the
largest of these mills was built just
recently by the government near
Vancouver, Wash. The fallers do
nothing but fall the trees, they cut
the trees about fifteen feet from the
ground, to do this they use what is
called spring board or rather two
of them which are placed in notches
cut in the tree, the -fallers must stand
on these boards while saving down
the tree, very few of which are under
200 feet in height and feet in diam
eter. These monsters of the Oregon
forests come down with a mighty
crash, breaking down all other trees
up to 8 feet that may be in their
downward path. Now comes the in
spector and markers who inspect and
mark the fallen trees for the buckers
who saw them into the proper
lengths, many fallen trees cannot be
used for aeroplane construction at all
and very few trees will produce more
than two logs, for Uncle Sam must
have only the best machines for his
war. birds. Every piece of timber
must stand the most rigid tests I'D
to the finished products; after the
buckers come the irving gangs who
split the logs up so they may be saw
ed into the lumber desired, very few
of the largest saw mills can saw
log. over five feet in diameter and the
log we are working on at present Il
happen to be a member of a irving
gang myself) is just nine feet in
diameter and scales IL 900 feet, a log
of this size often takes from two to
three days to split it into transport
able timber, we use five large lacks
and countless number of wedges for
this purpose.
Our squadron works under the sup
ervision of the Grant Smith Porter
Bros. Lumber Company and there are
hundreds of other men in this vicinity
working for Uncle Sam under the
supervision of other lumber COM
panys, our wages range from four to
five dollars per day less one dolla-
for board and we buy our own clothes
from the company store, as whole
it isn't so bad to be a spruce produc-
er, only on rainy days of which there
are a great many, most of US have
colds, but only one man of cur squad
ron has died since we came here, he
had pneumonia. We have good Off
GERS and little room to grumble.
Respectfully,
Robert c. Stokesberry,
452nd sqdn. A. S. S. C. Camp 2 A.
Seaside, Ore.