THE FORESTRY EXHIBITION AT PARIS. 341 



exhibitors and forest societies. In France, the National Depart- 

 ment of Forestry is concerned only with the management, growth, 

 and tending of the forests; all produce is sold in the forests, 

 standing, so that the great works of conversion and extraction, 

 which are such a feature of forest work in Germany, Austria and 

 Hungary, were but little represented. Sylvicultural work was, 

 however, represented by copies of forest working plans, with the 

 control books belonging to them, and by numerous valuable books 

 on forest subjects. In France, all the State forests and the Com- 

 munal forests which are managed by the State are under regular 

 working plans, calculated to provide for a permanent annual 

 yield in material such as is most required, and for a progressive 

 improvement of the capital stock. The yearly fellings, or coupes, 

 are marked by the forest staff, and the marked trees sold in block 

 standing in the forest ; but the export roads, and perhaps also 

 sledge-ways and other aids to extraction, are maintained by the 

 Department. There were several very interesting exhibits to 

 show the progress made in forest roads and forest works. Timber 

 was represented by a large series of wood specimens contributed 

 by the Forest School at Nancy, and on the walls was quite a 

 wonderful series to illustrate the small forest industries and the 

 local uses to which the products of the forests are put. But the 

 chief exhibits were those which illustrated the very important 

 works which France has undertaken of late years in the re- 

 clothing of denuded mountain slopes, the stoppage of landslips 

 and avalanches, the regulation of torrential streams, and the 

 planting up of coast sands. These works were illustrated by a 

 series of models, photographs, water-colour drawings, a diorama 

 showing a hill-side before and at the end of several years after 

 reclamation, and a series of books and pamphlets. The French 

 Government, in the last forty years, have reclaimed nearly 640 

 square miles of country, and spent about 2h million pounds 

 sterling ; the results have been excellent, and they are justly 

 proud of their success. The subject, however interesting for those 

 who live in countries where the mountains are liable to denuda- 

 tion, as they are in the European Alps, the Pyrenees, and other 

 great mountain ranges, is not of such interest to us, who in these 

 islands have only to do with moderate elevations, comparatively 

 easy slopes, and a moist climate ; but the study of the work done 

 in France is of the highest importance to those who have anything 

 to do with the ranges of the Himalaya, and who know how terrible 



