l62 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rental value of ^843,396, or 5s. lo^d. per acre, for these State 

 forests. There are no data available to enable me to show what 

 percentage this is on the capital value of the land and the grow- 

 ing stock of timber, but it is probably far from high. It should 

 be added, however, by way of explanation, that the charges 

 debited against the maintenance of the State forests include large 

 sums annually expended in the purchase and re-plantation of 

 waste lands, in improvements to water-courses, in the upkeep of 

 the Forest Schools for the upper and the lower branches of the 

 Forest Service, and in the maintenance and improvement of all 

 inland fisheries, which are now controlled by the Department of 

 Woods and Waters. 



Of the sanctioned budget of ^'562,924 for 1904, ^250,360, or 

 not very far from the half, is required to provide for the pay and 

 allowances of the permanent official staff, consisting of 32 con- 

 servators at ^320-480, 200 inspectors at ^180-240, 210 assistant 

 inspectors at ^120-160, 232 guards of higher grade at;^48-io4, 

 and 3650 brigadiers and guards of lower grade. For instruction 

 in forestry, ^^7000 are allotted, of which ^4120 are for the 

 National School of Forestry at Nancy (with 7 professors), and 

 ;^288o for the School of Technical and Practical Instruction in 

 Sylviculture at Barres (with 4 professors and other assistance). 

 It further includes ^52,560 for the improvement and upkeep of 

 forests, dunes, and water-courses, and ;^ 140,000 for the purchase 

 and re-plantation of waste land for national-economic and pro- 

 tective purposes, in accordance with the law passed on 4th 

 April 1882. For working-plans and exploitations ;^ 16,800 are 

 sanctioned, ^2000 for expenses connected with sport, and ^1040 

 for the destruction of wolves, wild-boars, and crows. The sum 

 of ^^8 1,800 forms the State contribution towards repairs of roads 

 near forests and other ordinary or extraordinary expenditure of 

 Departmental and Communal corporations; while ^^ 11,360 

 provide for sundries, including office expenses, prosecutions of 

 forest offences, purchase of implements, redeeming rights of 

 common, etc. 



The great national work of fixing the dunes along the south- 

 west coast of France has already resulted in the planting, with 

 the maritime or cluster pine, Piuus Pinaster, of 157,813 acres by 

 the Department of Woods and Waters, the frontage of which 

 forms a protection along 277 miles of the coast-line. The forests 

 that have thus been raised on the dunes of Gascony are now old 



