FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 263 
This body of officials is employed, partly in the ordinary duties of 
the department, as being in administrative, executive, or protective 
charge of the units into which the forests (including those of 
Algeria) are grouped, for their more efficient and convenient control ; 
partly in special branches, such as those which are charged with the 
preparation of working plans, with the treatment of unstable moun- 
tains, and with the communal grazing arrangements; and partly 
also in the Central Offices at Paris. The following statement shows 
the number of officers of the superior staff employed on each kind 
of duty :— 
=z |}a2| 2 uae cn Pe yd 
ae | | et (tee lee 
SoS i n 
Central Offices, . : : raed: 8 sep UD) | cil 7h || 6 
Ordinary duties, ; . aihaweaiditecs | BS 1802/77 (20Sn Eos 
Working-plans branch, ; wate || peas: lgaticet hey Mies 6 | 35 
Consolidation of mountain slopes, sah sae ft ee, |) AO. | a ee eo 
Communal grazing, . - Soca basi [ee se8 PAN eZ: 1 5 | 
Schools, . - - - Salas. 1 ] 3 GB |p ree [gel 
Algeria, : : : : el bees | aes 3 17 | 10) 37] 67 
Detached duty, . 3 Dye t4 8 
| | 
Total on active list, . .| 1 | 9 | 39 | 245 | 284 | 308 | 836 | 
| \ 
The Central Offices at Paris.—Since 1877, the Forest Depart- 
ment has been under the Minister of Agriculture, instead of, as 
formerly, under the Minister of Finance. And the change has 
proved a most beneficial one; for the forests are now regarded 
more from the point of view of their utility in augmenting the 
general prosperity of the country, than from that of the money 
revenue they can be made to yield; and they are no longer looked 
upon as available for sale whenever the low state of the exchequer 
may seem to suggest this course, which was not seldom in olden 
days. The Minister of Agriculture is the President, and the 
Director of the Forest Department is the Vice-President, of a 
Council of Administration formed by the eight inspectors-general, 
which considers all questions submitted for the orders of Govern- 
ment. The Central Office is divided into seven sections, each of 
which deals with certain branches of the work, and is presided over 
1 Exclusive of two forest officers who have been removed froin the active 
list as professors, and three professors who are not forest officers. 
