440 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



into the soul of the Nation. People sing about the forest, 

 and delight in the " wearing of the green " of forestry as a 

 popular fashion in dress. Everybody wants to be taken 

 for a " waldmann." It is from the Germans, posing will- 

 ingly as " foresters," that we have of late adopted — together 

 with many other things — the fashion of wearing grey-green 

 clothes and a favourite shape of soft green felt hats. 



In France there is not a little indulgence in a kind of 

 sport. But forestry is not a preoccupation. And private 

 forests, despite their extent, play a more humble part in 

 national economy. As to communes and foundations, 

 they have availed themselves eagerly of the opportunities 

 provided by the two Revolutions of 1789 and of 1848 — 

 pour letir malheitr, S2iys Blanqui — to throw off the regime 

 foresiier, under which they had stood and which was extremely 

 strict, giving, among other things, the Navy the right of 

 pre-emption in respect of any stems that they might deem 

 useful for their own purposes. And the results are written 

 in plain features on the deserts left. Some 14,000,000 acres 

 devastated in the brief period of the first revolution, com- 

 plains M. Descombes, of which more than a hundred years 

 of careful reafforestation have not succeeded in making 

 good more than about a tenth part. That was the first 

 revolution. The second here spoken of extended the 

 mischief. And the present war, according to the same 

 authority, has " massacred " no less than 1,250,000 acres 

 of what remained of French forest. 



There are two reasons why perhaps German forestry is 

 distinctly deserving of our attention. French teaching 

 for students is every bit as good as German. Nancy will 

 hold its own by the side of all German " Academies." But 

 if you look at the forests, you will find German forestry 

 making the better show. On this point, apart from the 

 admission with regard to certain features, of a late French 

 Inspecteur General des Forets, I have the testimony of so 

 thorough a French patriot as the late M. Grad with me, 

 who, having in his native Alsace had the same opportunities 

 for comparing the two systems as myself (among other 

 opportunities), that is, in the Vosges, only over a much 



