The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-12-05
AMERICAN TREES
HEAL WAR AREAS
Seedlings Are Being TranspIanted TO
Scared Regions Of France, Bell
GUM and Great Britain.

WASHINGTON, Dec. J.-Americar
seedlings. fast growing into mighty
trees. already are beginning to hea
the war SCARED areas of Europe. Not
only are they being nurtured ir
France and Belgium but in Greai
Britain also and in Ireland.
The French ministry has ordered
that the seedlings shall be located in
places readily accessible to main trav-
eled roads and, If possible, near well
known sites with the view that such
future forests shall remain as a mon
ument to the partnership of France
and America in the Great war" The
same sentiment also prevails in
Great Britain, which actually lost
more forest cover than any other
country by the sudden demands of
, war for materials. In Belgium. the
once beautiful Ardennes, where the
German axe left nothing standing, the
American Douglass fir is lifting its
head.
/ Arthur Newton Pack, Of Princeton.
N. j.. has just made a report to the
American Forestry association, which
supplied the seedlings, after a three
months inspection Of the paintings.
He reports the trees everywhere are
regarded as growing monuments to
cordial relations between the allies in
the great war. Packs reports shows
that the seedlings have been planted
along the Chemin des Danes around
Lille, Valenciennes and Hirson at the
doors of reviving industry; in the
forest of st. Gobain and around the
ruins OF the famous Coucy-le-Ch
teau; in the forset of Normal, where
in a $4,000 acre forest of pine and
beech the German axe left nothing but
the smallest saplings; in the Ar
dennes mountains bordering the old
duchy of Luxembourg; In County Ty-
rome, Ireland, where the best nursery
showing of any planted by the Bril-
fish forestry commission has been
made; and along the Caledonian ca :
nal in Scotland, known to all the
American navy. because it was there
the American submarine chasers We're
modified.
The magnitude OF the work ahead
Is shown in the report which brings
out that Great Britains program
calls for fourteen thousand pounds of
seed a year, while France needs an
equal amount, and because of the
summer drought Belgium needs al
most as much.
One of the first areas where seed
lings were placed by the French gov
eminent is along the Chemin des
Danes, where the glory Of the Amer
lean doughboy IS forever enshrined
So awful was the artillery fire that
hardly a charred stump remains Of
the once thick forest along the slopes.
Flanders. the seedlings carpet the
slopes once gouged and torn by the
battle wheel. Americas trees, too, will
be found taking the place of their
comrades who fell in the forest OF
Saint Gobain and around the ruins OF
the famous Goucy-le-Chateau, dyna-
mited by the retreating Germans.
ITO the north, the German army
cut every stick of available timber for
its own use" says the report In
the forest of Normal stood acres Of
beautiful pine and beech forest, OF
which nothing remains today except
the stumps. SO vast an undertaking
is involved in replanting everywhere
at once that here the French have
adopted a somewhat different system
clearing and spading up only a lit
tie circle here and there. wherein our
seed has been sown directly without
the intermediate nursery state The
loss may be heavier, but the labor
OF demonstration should be frightened.
This experiment withour seeds is
OF unusual interest to us in America,
where planting labor costs are so
high. and it may be that an expert
ment made with the American Doug
lass fir in France will prove to have
real value in forestry in America The
whole northern district, Lille, Valen-
ciennes and Hirson. IS part of the
great coal mining and manufacturing
center OF France which the German
army so thoroughly demolished and
because OF their location at the door
Of reviving industry the woodlands
here, splashed with patches OF Amer
lean trees, viii hold some of the high
est commercial value of any forests
IN the world. No better proof OF the
Importance Of reforesting our own
eastern areas need be sought.
In a tiny woodland in the Normal
forest somehow neglected by the Ger
mar army is sign erected by the