154 



CiUiad'uui Forestry Journal, April, IQ20. 



roads and making- the plans for for- 

 estation free of chars^e. The com. 

 munities were allowed to sell a part 

 of the reclaimed land in order to re- 

 cover the expense. From 1850 ^o 

 1892, private owners, imitatine: the 

 government and communal work, t - 

 750,000 acres were covered with pine 

 forests at a cost of $4.00 to $5.00 per 

 acre, or, including- the building of 

 roads, a total of around $io,ooo,c^oo 

 had been expended. In 1877 the 

 value of the then recovered area was 

 estimated at over $40,000,000. this 

 figure being arrived at by calculating 

 the possible net revenues of a pinery 

 under a 75 years rotation, which was 

 figured at $2.50 per acre, with a pro- 

 duction of 51 cubic feet per acre, nud 

 200 quarts of resin (at $3). An esit- 

 mate of recent date places the value 

 of this area at $100,000,000. 



How French Forestry Makes Monev 



Centrally located between the a al- 

 leys of the Loire and the Cher, near 

 Orleans, lies the region of T.a Scogne 

 a sandy, poorly drained plain upon an 

 impenetrable calcareous sub-soil giv- 

 ing rise to stagnant waters ; this re- 

 gion too, had been originally densely 

 wooded, and was described as a para- 

 dise in early times ; but from the De- 

 ginning of the 17th century to the end 

 of theiSth it was deforested, making 

 it an unhealthy, useless waste. _ By 

 1787, 1,250,000 acres of this territory 

 had become absolutely abandoned. 

 About the middle of the 19th century 

 a number of influential citizens con- 

 stituted themselves as a committee to 

 begin its work of recovery, the Direc- 

 tor_General of Forests being author- 

 ized to assume the presidency of that 

 committee. As a result a canal of 25 

 miles in length, and 350 miles of road 

 were built, and some 200,000 acres 

 (all non-agricultural lands) ^ were 

 planted with Maritime and Scotch 

 pine, the state furnishing assistance 

 through the forest service and other- 

 wise. A set-back occurred during the 

 severe winter of 1879, frost killing 

 many younger plantations, which led 

 to the substitution of the hardier 

 Scotch pine for the Maritime pine in 



the plantings. The cost per acre set 

 out with about 3,500 two-year ok! 

 seedlings amounted to $5.00. An esti- 

 mate of the ^alue of these plantations 

 ])1aces it at $t8.ooo.ooo. so that lands 

 which 50 years ago cnuUl hardly l)e 

 sf)ld for $4.00 ])er acre, now bring 

 over $3.00 as an annual revenue. 



Tn the province of Champagne 

 south of Reims, arid limestone wastes 

 of an extent which in the i8th cen- 

 tury had reached 1,750.000 acres, are 

 found. About 1807 the movement for 

 the r!H"( '^'ery of these wastes began 

 lirst in a small way. gaining: strength 

 by 1830 after some sporadic experi- 

 ments had shown the possibility of 

 reforestation, and today over 200000 

 esting to note that land which 50 

 years agfo was often sold without 

 measurement by distance, "as far as 

 the cry would carry," and never for 

 more than $4.00 per acre, is today 

 worth $40.00, at a cost for planting 

 of less than $10.00. The stumpage 

 value of a thirty years' growth is 

 figured at from $50 to $$too. the total 

 forest area is valued at $10,000,000, 

 with net revenue from the 200,000 

 acres of $2.00 per acre. 



PENNY WISE-POUND FOOLISH 



(Pacific Coast Lumberman.) 

 The recently announced resignation 

 of Colonel Henrv S. Graves, as Chief 

 Forester of the United States, brings 

 once more to mind the stupidly par- 

 simonious scale of salaries paid in the 

 forest branches of our own Civil Ser- 

 vice. 



Sometimes we are forced to the 

 opinion that only the least intelligent 

 men find their way into the high 

 places of government. It is an un- 

 pleasant thought! Yet what else can 

 we think, when we find government 

 administrative heads seemingly un- 

 able to understand that low salaries 

 on responsible posts mean book eco- 

 nofies only — that away from the 

 soothing figures of the accountant 

 they nearly always mean great losses 

 to the nation through inefificiency. 

 dissatisfaction and the never-ending 

 disorganization caused by a frequent 

 change of personnel. 



