230 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
and whose wishes must be acceded to when they are not opposed by 
the legislation, or contrary to the recognised principles of scientific 
forest management. 
The principal public institutions are hospitals, charitable associa- 
tions, churches, cathedral chapters, colleges, and schools ; and the 
forests belonging to them are subject to administration by the State 
Forest Department on precisely the same terms as are those of the 
commune and sections. 
Of the area of 7598 square miles shown as being thus managed 
on behalf of these bodies at the commencement of 1885, about 100 
square miles belong to public institutions, and about 7500 square 
miles to communes, including sections. Of the remainder of their 
forests, about 410 square miles owned by the latter, and about 27 
square miles by the former, are managed respectively by the com- 
munes themselves under the municipal laws, and by the administra- 
tive councils of the institutions. 
Changes in this respect frequently take place ; for every year a 
certain number of applications to free forests from the restrictions 
which State control involves are granted, while in other cases the 
owners demand or consent to their imposition. The records show 
that sanction has, since the year 1855, been accorded to the clearing 
of 35 square miles, and to the alienation of 40 square miles of the 
forests belonging to these bodies; but it is probable that the per- 
mission has not, in all cases, been acted on. 
For the sake of convenience, the forests belonging to communes, 
sections, and public institutions, will in future be spoken of 
collectively as ‘‘ communal” forests. 
DEMARCATION AND SURVEY. 
Up to the end of 1876, the work of demarcation had made good 
progress in the State forests, only 13 per cent. of which then 
remained to be completed, while 30 per cent. of the communal 
forests had still to be dealt with. The demarcation is indicated by 
dressed-stone pillars, with intermediate ditches or dry-stone walls, 
according to the custom and resources of each locality. The ground 
is usually re-surveyed after the demarcation has been completed, and 
at the end of 1876 about three-fourths of the State forests and one-half 
of the communal forests had been thus re-surveyed and mapped, the 
prevailing scale being zj55 (122”= 1 mile) and z9355 (63”= 1 
mile). Pending the completion of this work, the old maps are used 
