Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1918 — French Orchards Devastated by Germans [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

French Orchards Devastated by Germans

TTENTION has been dlrectA ed recently to the havoc A which hap been wrought by JA the Germans among the or>lA chards, fruit farms and nursery gardens of the de- ' ~ vastated portions of northern France, Belgium, Poland, Serbia and Roumanla. The manner in which the Teutonic forces deliberately and systematically carried out their policy of, destruction has been disclosed in those portions of France which hrtv& been released from German occupation during the past year. Not a tree was left standing or alive in the beautiful orchards which were the pride and at the same time the means of livelihood of the people of this de-

vastated country. The disclosure of these conditions has resulted in the formation of plans in London for the raising of funds to be used in the restoration of these orchards and nurseries. It is estimated that about $5,000,000 will be needed to complete this work of reconstruction. Some thousands of trees have already been dispatched to France for planting in the district which has

been wrested from German control. The destruction of the orchards is described by a writer in Country Life who went to France to learn what plans were being made to restore to prosperity the regions that have been laid waste in war. "No description in the newspapers brought home to me so vividly as a personal visit did the heavy hand which has been laid Upon these regions,” says this writer. The one phrase which kept rising in the mind and ever coming to the lips was the Scriptural one, “There shall not be left one stone standing upon another.” Before the war the region was one of the most fertile in France. Agricultural authorities assured me that the .best crops of wheat in the country were raised on the wide flat plains. The land at present is growing only thistles and other weeds. The ruin here differs entirely from that seen in such war-battered towns as Reims and Verdun. These have been smashed apd knocked about by shells and bombs till they are but ruins of what they once were. Still, there are houses standing untouched amid the general destruction, and they still are at least the shells of towns. But, to take for example the district around Noyon, not only have the streets been wrecked by fire and shell, but before leaving them the Germans went methodically through a course of destruction, blowing up roofs, gathering up implements into a heap for burning, and employing a kind of battering ram for breaking down the walls. So that to recur again to the phrase that keeps welling up like the burden of a song, there is really not one stone left to stand upon another. “More may be said about that hereafter. The main point today is to direct attention to what has actually been done by the Germans in the way of ruining gardens, orchards and nurseries. Those who have been in the country in peacetime will remember the rows of apple and pear trees that were grown along the straight roads running between unhedged fields. They will remember, too, the groups of plantations of trees in the fields, as well as the orchards and gardens near the pretty rustic houses characteristic of that French district. In preparation for evacuation, the German soldiers appear to have been ordered out with ax and saw to level these trees with the ground. Whether it is that nobody has found time to remove them or that the ruined trees are preserved as a monument to German brutality, there they are lying as they fell. Some, and these the most slender, have been clean sawn through; others cut with the ax; a few have been attacked with both ax and saw. But there they lie dead. Whatever there was of nursery or garden has been swept away. Even the hutches where the rabbits were kept have not escaped destruction. If one recognizes that these represent the chief elements in la petite culture, in which a considerable proportion of the inhabitants were engaged, it will not come as a surprise that the French officer commanding

in the district told me nothing had so angered and embittered his Poilus. They accepted the rest as a natural outcome, of the war, and what an extraordinary “rest” it was. One has to go far back to find anything to compare with it. After Bannockburn the Scots used to raid the adjacent parts of England, so that for years it was impossible to raise crops, and the houses were so systematically destroyed that the buildings of wood and stone were ultimately replaced by turf and wattle. The desolation there in the fourteenth century must have been comparable to the desolation produced in the twentieth century by a nation which counts itself cultured beyond most. And what was worse than damage to property was the carrying away into captivity of the whole population, excepting such as were too old to work. Into what various regions they have been scattered no one knows. Very few have found their way back. It was, however, the preparation for subsequent misery that inflamed the soldiery. I could see their eyes harden and shine like steel at the bare mention, and one effect has been that the French army will not be content with any end of this war which is not consummated on the further bank of the Rhine. “Lieutenant Traffaut, with a touch of* satire, remarked that the Germans

who had gone out to wreak mischief on the peaceful 1 Inhabitants ha<T unwittingly donothem a good turn. Many havepreached for years that the time had come to destroy and replant the orchards. They weremuch too old for grafting. The varieties grown were not good! and, besides, it i»Inimlcal to modern systems of cultivation tohave groups of

trees in the middle of a field. They only put difficulties in the way of plowing, difficulties that will be greatly accentuated when the tractor plow comes into more general use. He agreed with other experts witl> whom I had an opportunity of conversation that the better plan was to set about the planting of new tree*, which should be chosen with special regard to their suitability to the soil and the district, and to their usefulness. For many years it has been pointed out in vain to the French peasant, just as it has been to. English farmers and gardeners, that the old mossy trees, picturesque though they may be, which are usually found in both countries, could advantageously be replaced by young saplings of the best varieties. “But the French peasant is every bit as conservative as the British farmer. As long as his trees carried annually a certain amount of ill grown apples that he could make into a very indifferent cider, nothing would persuade him to remove them. He was equally deaf to the argument that cultivation would be easier if the trees were removed; from the middle of the field and planted along the sides. Out of evil comes good. A plan has been formed for reconstructing these orchards on an entirely new basis, with the co-operation of the British public.