46 



FOREST STATISTICAL DATA 



From a national and political standpoint France is unquestionably the 

 gainer by having her forests in small holdings. From the standpoint of 

 forest management and the treatment of individual stands small owner- 

 ship necessarily implies that each owner will cut spasmodically to satisfy 

 his needs in the village or farm. The large owner, on the contrary, upon 

 competent technical advice, manages his forest as a permanent business 

 and adheres fairly well to a sustained annual yield and to regulated fell- 

 ings. Other things being equal, having forests in small holdings benefits a 

 nation but deteriorates the stand. 



Ownership, System of Cutting, and Production. The summaries 

 that follow (taken from the official statistics of 1912) have been some- 

 what modified by the cutting and destruction made necessary by a great 

 war. But fundamentally the statistics will probably remain correct as 

 regards forest area because of the stringent laws against deforestation. 

 For the next hundred years the wood production will probably be at least 

 10 per cent less than during the past century. This means that in the 

 next decade the production will be, say, 20 per cent less, while during the 

 period 2010 to 2019 the loss may be only 1 per cent. In other words, the 

 recovery will be gradual and progressive if a proper forest policy is fol- 

 lowed. Detailed statistics (p. 50) show that 18.7 per cent of the total 

 area of France is in forests. A summary of forest ownership, system of 

 management, and annual production follows: 



TABLE 3. SUMMARY OF FOREST OWNERSHIP, SYSTEMS OF MAN- 

 AGEMENT, AND ANNUAL PRODUCTION 



a A factor of 3.5 cubic meters of logs to 1,000 board feet and 3.6 steres of fuel to 

 one cord was used to obtain the column "Annual production." Because of deple- 

 tion during the war these statistics are probably 10 to 20 per cent too high. 



Table 4 which follows shows the average annual per hectare production 

 in cubic meters by departments. 



These data are classed especially for Federal, communal, and institu- 



