FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 265 
ment both in the issue of orders for works, and in the selection of 
officers and subordinates for promotion to fill the vacancies that may 
occur. 
It may here be mentioned that in addition to the charge of the 
State and communal forests, the officers of the Department are called 
upon to exercise certain functions in the private forests, which will 
be explained hereafter. 
Working Plans.—A separate branch of the Department is charged 
with the framing of working plans for the most important forests, 
those for the smaller ones being prepared by the local officers. 
The thirty-five inspectors, assistant and sub-assistant inspectors, 
who are thus employed, are divided into nineteen sections, which 
are at present working in twenty-four conservatorships. As the 
operations are concluded in one locality, the sections are moved to 
another. The officers are under the orders of the local conservator, 
who transmits their proposals to headquarters with his own opinions 
and recommendations. 
Consolidation of Mountain Slopes.—The branch of the Depart- 
ment to which this vast undertaking is entrusted is presided over 
by an inspector-general, and is composed of seventy-six officers of 
the superior staff, working in eighteen centres. These officers are 
under the orders of the conservator within whose charge they are 
employed ; and he transmits their projects and proposals to the 
inspector-general, who is thus enabled, by the exercise of his super- 
vision, to utilise the experiences gained in the various localities for 
the benefit of the entire work. The inspector-general reports to the 
Director of the Department all matters relating to this undertaking 
which are to be laid before the Council of Administration. 
Communal Grazing Arrangements.—The five officers who are 
employed in the three great mountain regions to prepare projects 
for the control of the communal grazing arrangements, and the issue 
of rewards for improvements to the pastures effected by the 
fruitiéres (associations for cheese-making), are placed in the same 
relation to the conservators as are the ofticers employed on the con- 
solidation of mountain slopes. 
Accounts.—It is a fundamental principle of the French system 
of forest administration, that the forest officers have nothing 
to do with either the receipt or the payment of money. They 
sell the produce by auction, or by the granting of permits, as 
the case may be; but the sums realised on account of such sales 
are paid by the purchasers directly into the public or communal 
