128 FRANCE - MISCEIylvANEOUS 



doned on account of its increasing cost, or in vineyards destroyed by phyl- 

 loxera. To these causes is due the increase of woodland in Aube, Cote- 

 d'Or, Dordogne, Doubs, lyoir-et-Cher, Marne, Haute-Marne, Var, Vaucluse, 

 Vosges etc. The increase of woodland in Gironde and Ivandes is due to 

 large plantations of pines along the shore ; it is, however, to be observed that 

 there has been a slight diminution of the wooded area in Ivandes. 



The departments where a diminution has been observed are Allier, 

 Haute-Garonne, Gers, Isere, Loire-Inferieure, Lot, Nievre, Saone-et-Loire, 

 where the forests have been cleared to an appreciable degree, and Basses- 

 Pyrenees, where 30,000 hectares of wood have been destroyed by a crypt- 

 ogamic disease. 



Finally in a few departments, the difference shown is due to certain 

 wooded holdings not being classified in the same way at the date of the three 

 valuations. Thus the decreases shown in Hautes-Alpes, Cantal and Correze 

 are due, in large part, to the fact that, for the earUer valuations, land merely 

 covered with bushwood or bush in the first of these departments was class- 

 ified wrongly as woodland, and chestnut woods exploited principally for 

 the chestnuts, in the two other departments, were similarly wrongly class- 

 ified. In the same way, the increase in Haute- Vienne is due to the inclusion 

 in 1908 in the group of woodland of chestnut woods specially grown for 

 their wood and formerly included in the group of variously cultivated hold- 

 ings. 



gth. ^ygd of Moorland, Commons, Grazing Grounds and other Uncul- 

 tivated Land. 



The area of this group is shown in the following figures : 



in 1851 7,188,634 lia, 



6,746,800 ') 



» 1879 , , . 



/ 6,232,569 



\ 7,205,648 •. 



•' 1908 j' 



I 6,451,291 



The area of these holdings decreased by 956,065 ha. between 1851 and 

 1879 ' it then increased by 458,848 ha. between 1879 ^^^ ^9°^ '< finally, 

 the changes in the period 1851-1908 resulted in a diminution of 737,343 ha. 



The moorland area has only shown a constant increase in 10 depart- 

 ments, in 43 others there were decreases observed in 1879, and then in- 

 creases in 1908 ; the contrary was observed in 2 departments. Finally, 

 28 departments show a constantly decreasing area from 1851 to 1908. 

 The moorland area has decreased since 1879 i^ Alpes-Maritimes, Corsica 

 and Savoie ; and it has also become less in Haute-Savoie. 



The increases and diminutions observed in the moorland areas corre- 

 spond generally with the diminutions and increases shown for other 

 kinds of holdings. 



In fact it is seen that in the departments where the moorland area has 

 decreased since 185 1 most considerably, the Breton departments, AUier, 

 Bouches-du-Rhone, Cher, Gironde, Indre, Landes and Vienne, there has 

 been a large increase in the area of arable land, meadows and woodland. 



