FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 247 
generally speaking, yields, as well as for other reasons, it is a 
more suitable system for communes than high-forest; and this 
remark applies with equal or even greater force to private forests. 
Ricuts oF USER. 
The principal rights of user are those relating to timber, fire- 
wood, and grazing; but there is also a small number of others, such 
as those which permit the cutting of turf, the collection of dead 
leaves, and the like injurious practices. In the State forests, the 
right-holders are, almost without exception, village communities ; 
the instances in which private persons possess rights in them being 
extremely rare. The communal forests are, comparatively speaking, 
free from such burdens. 
The law of 1827 provided for the investigation and disposal of 
all claims to exercise rights in the State forests, and barred the 
acquisition in them of any fresh ones. Hence those only have now 
to be dealt with, which have been formally admitted and ‘recorded 
in favour of the communities or persons who possess them. 
The aim of the Department has always been to free the forests 
from such claims as far as possible, and the law provides for this 
being done in the following manner, viz., all rights of wood may 
be commuted by surrendering possession of a portion of the forest 
itself in lieu of them, the terms being arranged by mutual consent, 
or, in case of disagreement, by the Courts ; but the State alone can 
demand such a commutation, the right-holder cannot do so. Other 
rights, including those of pasture, cannot be got rid of in the above 
manner, but the State can buy them out by the payment of a sum 
of money, the amount of which is either settled by mutual agree- 
ment or by;the Courts. The sale of pasture rights cannot, however, 
be enforced in places where their exercise is absolutely necessary 
for the inhabitants, the question of such necessity being, in case of 
dispute, referred to the Conseil de Préfectwre," subject to an appeal to 
the Conseil d’Etat.2 The law also provides that the exercise of all 
rights, which have not been got rid of in either of the above ways, 
may be reduced by the Forest Department with reference to the 
condition of the forests, and the mean annual production of the 
material in respect of which they exist ; and none can be exercised 
1 An administrative tribunal, established in each Department of France. 
2 The central administrative tribunal, established at Paris for hearing 
appeals from the decisions of the Conseils de Préfecture. 
