248 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the law and 
the rules based on it. 
The principal features of the legislation regarding the exercise of 
wood-rights are the following, viz. :—No wood can be taken which 
has not been formally made over by the Forest Department ; per- 
sons who possess a right to dead-fallen wood cannot employ hooks 
or iron instruments of any sort in its collection ; when firewood is 
made over standing in the forest, it is felled, cut up, and taken out 
by a contractor, selected and paid by the right-holders, but pre- 
viously approved by the Forest Department ; the partition of the 
wood among the inhabitants cannot be made until the work is 
entirely completed; the contractor is responsible in all respects 
as if he had been the purchaser of the produce, but he acts 
under the pecuniary guarantee of the body of right-holders, who 
cannot barter nor sell the wood made over to them, nor put it to 
any use other than that for which it is given to them ; timber made 
over in satisfaction of a right, but not used within a period of two 
years, may be reclaimed by the Forest Department. 
No right can exist to take goats into either the State or the 
communal forests, as the grazing of these animals is considered 
incompatible with the maintenance of the ground under wood. 
The old laws suppressed, without compensation to the right-holders, 
the practice of grazing sheep in the forests of the ancient royal 
domain of France, and the law of 1827 suppressed it also, on pay- 
ment of compensation, in those State forests which are of more 
recent origin ; but the Government has the power to permit sheep- 
grazing in certain localities as an exceptional and temporary 
measure. No right to pasture any kind of animals can be exercised 
in any part of a forest not declared out of danger by the Forest 
Department, which has also the power to limit the number of 
animals to be admitted, and the period during which they may 
graze, with reference to the condition of the forest and the quantity 
of grass in it. Right-holders can only pasture animals which they 
keep for their own use, not those which they keep for sale. 
On the Ist January 1877, about one-half of the total area of the 
State forests was burdened with rights of the estimated annual 
value of £38,400, while only -3 per cent. of the communal forests 
were so burdened, the annual value in their case being estimated at 
£6700. The commutation and purchase of rights, which was com- 
menced in a systematic manner in 1857, is effected by the officers 
of the ordinary service, as well as by those who are charged with 
