926 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



France is the only country which can boast 



Forests of having complete statistics of her forests, 



of pubhc and private, in the magnificent ofBcial, 



France two-vohime pubHcation, Statistique et atlas des 



forcts de France, compiled by L. Daubree. the 



director-general of waters and forests, in 191 2. 



From these volumes Badoux, the editor of the Journal Forestier 

 Suisse (which is a French edition, but with partly other contents, of 

 the Schzvekerische Zeitschrift fi'ir Forstwescn), has extracted the fol- 

 lowing data of interest. 



The forests of France, from the administrative point of view, are 

 divided into two categories, those submitted to the regime forestier, 

 and those not so submitted. Under the first category belong the public 

 domain and most of the communal forests and forests belonging to 

 public institutions ; under the latter fall the privately owned and a few 

 comitiunal and institute forests. This category comprises about twice 

 the area of the first, i. e., fully two-thirds of the forest area is not 

 under government supervision. 



The statistical data refer to the year 1908. With an area of 24,- 

 414,000 acres the forest covers 18.7 per cent of the country, or not 

 quite two-thirds of an acre per head. About 5 per cent of this area is 

 unproductive rock, marsh, etc. Apparently there has been an increase 

 in forest since 1892. 



The distribution over the country is very unequal, so that there are 

 departments with over 55 per cent, and others as low as 3 to 4 per 

 cent forested. 



Ownership is divided in the following proportions : State domain, 

 12.1 per cent; communal and institute forest under State control, 19.7 

 per cent ; not so controlled, 2.7 per cent ; private, 65.5 per cent. In 

 three departments the forest is all private; in ten departments there 

 is no State forest, and in fourteen no communal forest. 



During the nineteenth century private forest increased by purchase, 

 while the State was selling until 1870, and by planting, which extended 

 over 2.7 million acres. 



As regards composition, 80 per cent are broadleaf, 20 per cent 

 coniferous forest. This explains in part the fact of the large extent 

 of coppice. Only 34 per cent is timber forest, 24.9 per cent simple 

 coppice, 39.4 per cent coppice with standards, and 1.7 per cent in con- 

 version. The largest proportion of timber forest is found in the State's 



