The stevedores were the great roadbuilders in France. Thousands also worked in the great forests, cutting wood, peeling trees, and laboring in the sawmills. In the Forestry Division at Jironde they made an average of peeling 35 trees a day per man, while the average of other engineers were only 15 trees. Nazareth Thaggard of the 323rd Service Battalion made the highest record of any man in the A. E. F. by cutting 30 steres of wood in one day. The task for his company was five steres. For this notable achievement he was given a twenty-day pass to travel over France and made a corporal in his organization. The 320th Engineers cut and carried wood for a mile and a half on their backs. The men in the 332nd Labor Battalion, stationed at Brion, cut six steres of wood as a daily task. They cut 1500 steres at Jerocho and 5400 at Comercy. The woodcutters lived in floorless tents often surrounded by mud. Many times the necessary clothing and boots could not be secured, and sometimes they were obliged to eat in the rain and snow. Dr. Hope, of whom we have spoken as at the head of Y. M. C. A. work for Negro soldiers in France, said in speaking of a visit to the woodcutters: “One night I went in a car fifteen miles out in a wood with a chaplain who came to a small French town to buy ‘smokes’ for the men. When we reached the camp it was dark. Lights were seen in the narrow streets and mud deeper than I had ever seen before. In the morning the men got up at 4.45. The sound they made walking through the mud was unlike any noise that I had ever heard. Even at that early hour some were joking, some singing.” The record of almost every organization cutting wood shows that the men endured great suffering, and the Negro’s sense of humor was a great asset to him. Said one private who served with the 323rd service battalion: “We have come in wet to the skin, with our boots half full of water. Some would go to a stove and get warm, some would sing, some play cards. Others would walk five miles for French bread and butter and eggs that they would cook in their mess-kits. Some would laugh and be happy, while others beside them would die.”