Timber For The Trenches

A PEEP AT A CANADIAN LUMBER CAMP IN ENGLAND

By L.F. Stockwell

EVERY boy enjoys reading stories of life in the lumber camps of Canada, or seeing pictures or the wild North-West at the cinema, but it would he a great surprise to many to come upon a real Canadian lumber camp in the heart of our English woods.

 Yet today, if we happen to stroll through a forest, " somewhere in England ' we may do so, for in one district alone there are five such camps, four entirely worked by men who have learned their trade in the famous timber camps of Canada, the fifth worked by our oldest allies, the Portuguese who are said to be the best lumber-men in the world.

 At first sight of the Canadian camp we rub our eyes, and can scarcely believe we are in old England, so strange and foreign looking is this picturesque town of brown wooden huts that has sprung up within a few months, and is being constantly added to. On either side of the white winding road are irregular rows of huts with sharply-pointed roofs and fronts tastefully ornamented with unbarked pine wood in diamond devices. These are the men's living quarters, the officers' being distinguished by an overhanging roof that forms a verandah, with three fir trees in pots before the door. When, in summer, the poles are twined with bright nasturtiums the effect is very pretty.

There are, besides a large lofty stable for the powerful horses that draw the timber waggons, a big shed where the saw-mill is ever at work  turning the rough tree trunks into neatly sawn planks, sheds for stores and the various motor vehicles, a tiny church, a Y.M.C.A. hut, or a hospital.

The workers, who have come from the utmost parts or the Empire to help, are under military discipline, though they are not actual soldiers,  but correspond to the labour batallions.. They wear a loose comfortable uniform suited to the heavy work of handling logs, consisting of khaki shirts, blue slacks, slouch hats, or bright yellow oilskin sou'-westers, which make a cheerful patch of colour among the brown of the woods.

Many of the lumber-men are fine strong young Colonials of pure British blood, others are French Canadians who can speak little or no English, anti there are, besides, Indians and half-breeds who have left their far homes to do their bit in the world war.

But a short time ago these forest solitudes were given up to the foxes, the badgers and the birds. Now the sun shines down upon a busy scene, while over all the red flag of Canada floats proudly in the breeze. With a -ideal hoot a little engine appears from behind the trees, bringing rough timber to feed the sawmill, while, on a second light railway running down to another clearing the trucks are drawn by a horse harnessed to the first. The wood is sawn into planks of equal size, then neatly piled cross-wise in tall stacks till ready to be taken to the railway on huge motor lorries. These neat piles of timber remind us of the teak yards of Rangoon where the wood is piled by the clever elephant " lumbermen."

All day lone the work goes steadily forward without hustle or the noise and shouting we generally associate with timber work. An officer in khaki goes round supervising, accompanied by a lame retriever and a bull terrier - two faithful friends who bear him company in exile. The planks are chiefly used for building the huts needed to shelter our millions of' soldiers, the round tree tops serve for trench props and similar purposes. Thus, as in days of old the yew trees of this forest provided bows for the archers of Crecy, and the oaks supplied timber for our wooden ships, so today the pine woods are making their war-offering, and the Overseas men who have come to cut the timber are linking up the chain of our great Empire.