Forestry in France.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 5, 1 January 1921, Page 113

Forestry in France.

NEW ZEALAND STUDENT’S LETTER. In a letter to Mr. E. Mackintosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, one of the New Zealand students in forestry in England, Mr. W. M. E. Martin, describes a visit which he made to some of the French forests under the guidance of Professor Troup, late Inspector General of the Indian Forest Service. They visited the Foret de Lyons in Normandy, Montague, Loubray, Louviers, Alencon, Foret de Belleme, Tours, Bordeaux, and Mimizan, and Capbreton in the Landres. Mr. Martin says that he was much struck with the maritime pine forests in the Landres. The establishment of these dense belts of trees was, in his opinion, the greatest victory in the annals of afforestation. He had also visited a resin factory, and had seen the various processes. The officer in charge had said that the whole scheme of iresin extraction and manufacture had cost the

French Government about 13,000,000 francs, but that he himself last year had sold 5,000,000 francs per month of the product. At Capbreton Mr. Martin saw the cork oak and maritime pine in mixed forest. A bottle-cork factory was visited, a factory run by a man and his family. On an average 4000 corks a day were turned out at that place by hand.

In the course of his journey Mr. Martin passed through the battle-scarred area of the Somme. The remains of all our brave fellows,” he writes, “ are now gathered together in beautifully laid-out cemeteries, under the auspices of the Imperial War Graves Commission. Several of the cemeteries which I visited were completed, and on walking round the neat gravel paths, lined with flowers, I saw names of those whom I shall never forget. The whole is surrounded by a massive Portland stone wall. The masonry of the cemeteries can only be characterised as sublimely beautiful. Before such a scene one felt humbled, and yet proud, that our Imperial Government, once again, had not looked to the cost first, but had acted ‘ on the square,’ even with the dead.”