188 FORESTRY ALMANAC 



manufacture. There is considerable awakened appreciation of the 

 importance of the forestry movement in Finland, and the University 

 of Helsingfors has established a Department of Forestry to train 

 foresters. A research institute has been created, and laws have been 

 enacted to check the cutting of young timber. Advisers are maintained 

 through government aid to assist the farm with forestry problems, 

 and the Forestry Society of Finland, organized in 1909, is an 

 active organization. 



France 



In 1914 the forests of France totalled 24,420,000 acres. Of this 

 2,962,000 acres were owned by the State; 4,816,000 acres belonged to 

 the communes or were included in public establishments and the 

 remaining 16,642,000 acres were privately owned. It is estimated 

 that 500,000 acres were stripped entirely of productive timber by the 

 war, and that 375,000 more acres were the victims of abusive, prema- 

 ture or vicious exploitation. By the acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine, 

 France came into about 1,090,000 wooded acres, about two-thirds of 

 which is under State or communal control. 



The forests of France are maintained on a policy of sustained 

 yield, the annual growth equalling the annual cut. There are about 

 960,000,000 cubic feet of wood taken from the forests of France and 

 Alsace-Lorraine annually. The annual consumption is somewhat over 

 a billion cubic feet, making France an importer. The government is 

 carrying forward a program of intensive reforestation of the areas 

 devastated by the war and the forest stands depleted by the exigencies 

 of supplying her own and the Allied armies. 



Solicitude for her forest resources is fundamental in France, which 

 has followed a definite policy since the days of Colbert and the ordi- 

 nance of 1669. Educational facilities are provided by the State for 

 the training of foresters, the upper school being at Nancy and the 

 secondary and forest guard schools at Les Barres in Loiret, where 

 one of the most complete arboretums and research stations is main- 

 tained. France, also, is looking in the near future to the exploitation 

 and improvement of the forest resources of her colonial possessions. 



French Africa 



In her several colonies in Africa, France has about 150,000,000 

 acres of forest land, perhaps one-third of which has merchantable 



