REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO FRANCE. II9 



Alongside the roads and canals, avenues of trees, composed 

 chiefly of black Italian and Lombardy poplar, are planted with 

 great regularity in the intervals, and appear to thrive exceedingly 

 well. Robinia, or the wild acacia, springs up like a weed all over 

 the railway cuttings, and on thin patchy land wherever the seed 

 reaches the soil. 



Before describing the various forests visited during the Ex- 

 cursion, it may not be out of place to state here the approximate 

 area and composition of the woods belonging to the Government, 

 the communes, and the private proprietors of France. 



The total wooded area is approximately 35,470 square miles, 

 or a little more than 1 7 per cent, of the entire area of the country 

 — the wooded proportion of the British Isles being only 4 per 

 cent, of the entire area. Of this vast area, about 66 per cent, 

 is owned by private proprietors, 22 per cent, by communes and 

 sections of communes, 10 per cent, by the State, and 0*3 per 

 cent, by public institutions. 



The small number of the different kinds of trees which enter 

 into the composition of the French forests is very remarkable ; 

 for it appears that oak, beech, and hornbeam occupy 60 per cent, 

 of the tree-covered area. The next in importance are the silver 

 fir, Scots pine, evergreen oak, cluster pine, spruce, and larch. 



Broad-leaved forests, pure and mixed, constitute about 67 per 

 cent, of the entire wooded area, and mixed broad-leaved and 

 coniferous forests 18 per cent., while pure coniferous forests 

 amount to but 15 per cent, of the whole. 



The Excursion proper began on July 26th, by members paying 

 a visit to the famous Ecole Forestiere, founded in 1824, at Nancy, 

 which is the principal Forest School in France — although there 

 is another school at Les Barres, where subordinate forest officials 

 can qualify for the higher public forest service, as well as be 

 trained for subordinate service and for posts in private forests 

 Before 1824, the Department was chiefly recruited by means of 

 retired officers of the army. Few of these, however, received, 

 under the old system, a professional training sufficient to enable 

 them to discharge their duties satisfactorily, and it was to remedy 

 this state of things that the School was established. 



The controlling and teaching staff is composed as follows, 

 viz. : — One Director (Professor of Political Economy and Forest 

 Statistics), one Deputy Director (Professor of Forestry), one 

 Assistant Professor of Forestry, one Inspector of Studies (Pro- 



