PRIVATE FORESTRY IN FRANCE 



BY W. B. GREELEY 



FORMERLY LIEUTENANT COLONEL 20TH ENGINEERS 



IT was a lumberjack sergeant of the 20th Engineers 

 who remarked that the lumber business in France 

 seemed to be concerned more with growing trees 

 than cutting them into boards. That in a nutshell is 

 the difference between the timberland owner in France 

 and the timber baron of America. The conception of a 

 forest as land producing crop after crop of wood ex- 

 tends from the intensively managed public forests of 

 France down to the peasant who owns half a hectare of 

 poplars in a swampy bottom. 



To us in the United States, who are wont to think 

 of forestry as possible only for the nation or state, it is 

 of interest to know that two-thirds of the wonderfully 

 conserved for- 

 ests of France 

 are owned by 

 private citi- 

 z en s . The 

 technical care 

 of these 16 

 million acres of 

 private forests 

 does not differ, 

 in essential re- 

 spects, from 

 that given to 

 the state and 

 communal 

 p r ope r t ies. 

 About 30 pter 

 cent of them, 

 however, are 

 devoted to the 

 production of 

 hardwood fuel, 

 with crops 

 every 20 years, 

 whereas the aim 

 of the public 



forests is to grow as much large timber as possible. 

 Upon her privately owned forests, France thus depends 

 for the bulk of her lumber and fuel wood. Private for- 

 estry is a vital factor in her national economy. 



The ownership of forests, for hunting preserves, was 

 highly prized by the lords of feudal France. Many areas 

 were, indeed, kept in forest for the noble's pleasure, that 

 should have been put into farms to support his half- 

 starved tenants. So persistent is this tradition that the 

 ownership of forests is still, in most parts of France, an 

 earmark of gentility. Many of the private forests of 

 today are relics of the old seigneurial estates. In the 

 center of the Forest of Meillant, near Bourges, which was 

 cut by the 20th Engineers, stands a thick stone table of 



Photograph by M. Garbe 



A FOREST PLANTATION 



triangular shape, with a colossal stone chair facing each 

 of its sides. Here, according to local tradition, the three 

 lords who formerly owned the forest met to settle affairs 

 of the chase or matters of dispute, each nobleman occupy- 

 ing a chair on his own land. And here was played the 

 game of cards, to settle a controversy or a wager, by 

 which it was determined which of the three seigneurs 

 should own the whole forest. The Marquis of Meillant 

 won, but today his hunting preserve has passed into the 

 hands of a French business man who makes airplane 

 hangars for the government. 



Other large areas of forest passed into private hands 

 through the sale of crown and state property during the 



50 years fol- 

 lowing the 

 Re volu tion. 

 This movement 

 was analogous 

 in many re- 

 spects to the 

 a 1 i e nation of 

 our own public 

 domain, and 

 marked the re- 

 action of 

 French i n d i - 

 vidualism from 

 the former 

 power and 

 f u n c t ions of 

 the state. A 

 third source of 

 private forests 

 as we find them 

 in Friance to- 

 day was the 

 planting of 

 large areas in 

 t h e southern 

 sand plains and in the central and northern valleys about 

 the middle of the last century. The successful foresta- 

 tion of the southwestern sand dunes by the government 

 led to the planting of 1,500,000 acres of private holdings 

 in the Landes and Gironde with maritime pine. At about 

 the same time, several factors, particularly the shortage 

 of agricultural laborers, brought about the reforestation 

 of farm land in the Valley of the Loire and other highly 

 developed parts of northern France. Many of the for- 

 ests of Scotch pine in this region, which furnished thou- 

 sands of poles and piles for the allied armies, were plant- 

 ed from 40 to 60 years ago. 



Among the economic conditions which keep these 16 

 million acres of privately-owned land in continuous wood 



IN THE FRENCH ALPS 



139 



