Property Conditions. 189 



domain which comprises roads, canals, harbors, etc., and 

 the alienable national domain including the forest and 

 other property derived from royal or crown domains 

 which were entirely absorbed in it. To this national 

 domain was added by the law of 1792 the forest property 

 of the refugees of the revolution and finally when by the 

 treaty of Basel (1795) the French frontier had been 

 pushed to the Ehine, the total state forest comprised 

 around 6,500,000 acres, nearly one-third of the total for- 

 est area. 



But through sales and otherwise this area had by 1815 

 been reduced to 3,200,000 acres, and during the period 

 until 1872 no stable policy regarding this property was 

 maintained, the area being reduced to less than 2,500,- 

 000 acres. At present (1905) it comprises 2.9 million 

 acres or less than 12 per cent, of the total forest area, 

 55 per cent, of which comes from the original royal 

 domain, 22 per cent, from original church property and 

 23 per cent, from recent acquisitions, secured imder the 

 laws of reboisement of mountains, sand dunes, etc. 



The communal property developed largely in a simi- 

 lar manner as in Grermany from the Mark and through 

 the feudal system, with its rights of user as a result. 

 In the twelfth century the grandees or seigneurs were 

 active in colonizing their domains, acquired as fiefs or 

 otherwise, with serfs and others, giving them charters 

 for villages with communal privileges and rights. 

 Under this method another kind of communal forest 

 property grew up, in which limitations and reservations 

 of rights imposed by the seigneurs gave rise to many 

 rights of user. These, as in Germany, were later fre- 

 quently exchanged for territory, thereby increasing the 



