The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-12-07
SEEDLINGS OF
AMERICA USED
IN WAR AREAS

Washington. - American seed
lings, fast growing into mighty
trees, already are beginning TO heal
the war SCARED areas OF Europe
Not only are they being nurtured
in France and Belgium but in Great
Britain also and in Ireland
The French ministry has ordered
that the seedlings shall be located
in places readily accessible to main
Travelled roads, and, if possible,
near we'll known sites with the
view that such future forests shall
remain as a monument to the part
nership OF France and America il
the great war" The same senti-
ment 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 in the once
beautiful Ardennes where the Ger
man axe left nothing standing the
beautiful American Douglass fir is
lifting its head.
Arthur Newton Pack of Prince
ton, y. J.. has just made a report
to the American Forestry associa-
tbn, which supplied the seedlings
after a three months inspection of
the paintings. He reports the trees
everywhere are regarded as grow
ing monuments to cordial relations
between the allies in the great war.
Packs report shows that the seed
lings have been planted along the
Chemin des Danes, around Lille,
Valenciennes and Hirson at the
doors OF reviying industry; in the
forest OF Saint Gobain and around
the ruins of the famous Coucy-le-
Chateau; in the Forest Of Normal
where in a $4,000 acre forest of
pine and beech the German axe left
nothing but the smallest saplings;
IN the Ardenues mountains border
ing the old duchy of Luxembourg;
IN County Tyrone, Ireland. where
the best nursery showing of any
planted by the British Forestry
Commission has been made, and
along the Caldedouian Canal in
Scotland known to all the American
navy because it was there in Amer
lean submarine chasers were mob
ilized.
British Program.
The magnitude of the work ahead
is shown in the report which
brings out that Great Britain's pro
gram calls for 1900 pounds of seed
a year while France needs an equal
amount and because of the summer
drought Belgium needs almost as
much
One OF the first areas where the
seedlings were placed by the
French government is along the
Chemin des DANES where the glory
Of the American doughboy is for
ever enshrined. So awful was the
artillery fire that hardly a
charred stump remains of the once
thick forest along the slopes. But
now row on row. like the peoples
OF Flanders, the seedlings Garnet
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 Bobain and around
the ruins of the famous Coucy-le-
Chateau, dynamited by the retreat
ing Germans.
Stamps Remain.
To the north the German armv
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 re-
planting everywhere at once that
here the French have adopted a
somewhat different system-clear-
ing and spading up only a little cir
Gle here and there wherein our
seed has been sown directly without
the intermediate nursery state. The
loss may be heavier, but the labor
OF reforestation should be light
ened.
This experiment without seeds
IS or unusual interest to us in
America. where planting labor
costs are so high and It NAV he
that an experiment made with
american Douglas Fir in France
viii prove to have real value In
forestry in America