St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1919-02-01

never did before Xmas Eve---I went
to midnight mass with my girl
First time to be at Catholic Church
After mass l came back with her
and had supper with her at 2 O'Clock
Xmas morning. She served a fine
baked chicken. When I got to camp
it was O'Clock. We had breakfast at
9 o'clock in camp, and dinner at 2
O'Clock. For dinner the sergeants
and officers each had a nice baked
turkey, the remainder of the com
pany had goose for dinner. We also
got Christmas package from the
Y. M. c. A. At 4 p. m. l went to
see my girl. l spent about three
hours with her and came back to
camp, and Christmas was finished
for me.
This morning to my surprise when
| got up the ground was covered
with snow.
| am going to tell you all what the
Forestry Troops have been doing in
France. On November %, 1917, the
irst board was cut in France by
American Forestry Troops at little
French mill in the mountains. The
! total cut during December, 1917, was
321, 900 board feet Of lumber and
$4,000 railroad ties. When the
armistice was signed on Novem Der
II, 1918, the goth Engineers, to
which we are attached, were operat-
ing 81 American sawmills and pro-
ducing 100000 feet of lumber and
round products each working day.
Up to December LIST we have cut
272, 100000 feet of lumber and
2,728,000 railroad ties, together with
$4,000 pieces Of piling, 2,739, 900
poles of all sizes, and 892, 900 tiers
of fuel wood. A tier of wood is
inches wide, 80 inches high.
At the time of signing the armis-
tice the A. E. F. was well supplied
with lumber, fuel and railroad ties
The Colonel says we wanted to
go to the front, but could not. He
said you have had to put in long
hours of the hardest kind of work
month after month, without glory or
excitement, and without any special
form of recognition given to combat
troops. So you see we did our part,
and that is all any one can do.
In the goth Engineers and attach
ed Service Troops, there are some
thing like $4,000 men.
l shall proceed to tell you what
this individual company has done
(19th Engineers). Since we have
been over here we have cut about
10000 tiers of wood, also about
5000 logs, a number of poles of diff
Gin ole
work. When we first came over they
1 laughed at US cutting wood, in her
words the troops that were old on
the job. We were required to cut
three tiers per man. 1t was very
difficult to do until we broke them in.
Later on different Companies got to
sending records around of different
men that cut the most wood, SO we
decided to make record that would
stand, and we did They did not
laugh at US. We got congratulations
from the Major on up. We Org2niZ-
4 ed our company in four teams and
gave prizes for the men cutting the
most wood in six days. The in
dividual cutting the most wood got
pair of shoes; the team cutting the
most wood got a chicken dinner, and
the others different prizes. For six
days we had an average of 101 men,
and made an average of 631 tiers
each day for each man. The in
dividual man cut 81 tiers in the six
days. In the six days we cut 1884
tiers Of wood. We increased our cut
ITO per cent. The Colonel said that
was the best record he had heard tell
of-and that chicken dinner is caus-
ing US to stay in France about 80
days longer than we ought to. But
we are not thinking of being over
so soon. We were working to win.
Now we are working to get rid of this
wood and timber so we can go home
I think we will be completed by
February 1st. I think we will go
home then, if they don't push us off
on some other job to help finish up
We have had a good time to what
the men at the front have had. The
Wrost thing we had to contend with
was rain and mud.
Hoping this will find you all In
good health, 1 am,
VoDr cco