172 ADMINISTRATION OF FRENCH FORESTS. [Jan. 



administration had ignored tlie true methods of increasing the 

 young woods. Owing to tliis varying, according to the species of 

 the tree and tlie nature of soil and climate, it was impossible to lay 

 down a hard and fast line of increase for every locality. Tliis, 

 liowever, tlie Forest administration attempted ; and consequently 

 the money value of the national forests was annually decreasing. 

 He proposed a new system, that of confrulc, which was a periodic 

 measurement of each tree at 1 metre 33 c. from the ground. Thus 

 in a fir forest of 430 hectares, in which there were 49,000 cubic 

 metres in 1869, increased in thirteen j-ears to 93,000 cubic metres, 

 — a ratio of increase of 8 cubic metres per hectare yearly, exclu- 

 sive of the annual cuttings, which were 470 per cent, of the total 

 increase of each period, — by the adoption of tlie new method, 60 

 millions of francs would be added to the State revenue, while the 

 material of the forests would be doubled. The military and navy 

 departments did not get 800,000 francs wortli of wood from the 

 State forests. 



The Minister of Agriculture, in reply, stated that the fall in the 

 price of wood during the last twenty years might account for some 

 of the figures just quoted liy the Opposition. The cubic metre of 

 wood selling at 18 francs in 1876 had fallen to 14 francs in 1882. 

 The cuttings, from 1 1 G 9 francs per hectare in 1876, had fallen to 8 7 7 

 francs in 1882. Importation of foreign woods in part accounted 

 for this. These had risen from 19 millions in 1832 to 44 millions 

 in 1842, while in 1882 these imports had mounted to 236 

 millions. M. Leveire had told them that the l^orest Department 

 spent 16 millions out of 29 millions of receipts. But this ex- 

 penditure should be viewed from a national standpoint. Upwards 

 of 4 millions had been spent in fixing sand-dunes alone ; 2 millions 

 were spent on the forests of Algeria; there were communal and 

 other disbursements, so that the actual cost of managing the State 

 forests was only 8 millions of francs. Instead, then, of the expense 

 of management being, as according to the previous speaker, 1 6 francs 

 per hectare, it was really 8 fr. 9 c. for that area. Then the 

 really productive State forest areas, from which had to be subtracted 

 pasturages, sand - dunes, and lik« unremunerative grounds, was 

 803,000 hectares, and these yielded 39 francs per hectare. De- 

 ducting the charge already stated, there was thus a revenue of 30 

 francs per hectare. The .system M. Leveire proposed the State 

 should adopt was that of M. Gurnaud, formerly a forest officer, 

 which holds that the forest cuttings really represented increased 

 value in the standing wood, but that was not decided. The 

 increase in the young woods is much more rapid than in the elder 

 trees. Here the new method would break down. It is based on 



