1380 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



try now to give a picture of French forestry in the broad, 

 — its historical setting, the national conceptions which it 

 expresses, and what it has accomplished.* 



The forestry ordinances of the "ancien regime" con- 

 tained a mass of detailed restrictions, designed not only 

 to prevent a diminution in the forested areas but also to 

 control the methods of cutting and using timber. Hard- 

 wood sprout forests could not be cut before the age ol 

 ten years ; and then a certain number had to be reserved 

 to produce large timber. The age when large trees 

 might be cut and methods of securing regrowth were 

 carefully defined. The needs of the royal navy were pro- 

 tected by requiring special sanction from the king before 

 large timber could be cut within 10 leagues of the sea or 

 2 leagues of a navigable river — a regulation which calls 

 to mind that the first forestry legislation of the United 

 States was the reservation of oak and cypress lands for 

 the supply of the American navy. 



This forestry code was in keeping with the whole rural 

 legislation of the times. The freedom of land owners 

 was restricted at almost every turn by royal decrees. 

 Vineyards could not be planted in certain cantons. The 

 fallowing of land at stated periods was obligatory in 

 nearly all forms of culture. It is significant that the 

 public interest was but a secondary and incidental object 

 of these onerous restrictions. The king regarded him- 

 self as the guardian of his people ; and sought to 



*Much of the material for these articles has been taken from 

 Guyot's Cours de Droit Forestier. 



protect his subjects against injuries to their own interests. 



The great outburst of democracy and individualism in 

 the French Revolution unceremoniously threw this maze 

 of restrictive legislation out of doors. The free citizen 

 of the new era was released from all guardianships. A 

 law of 1791 declared that the forests of private owners 

 ceased to be under control of the State. Their owners 

 were free to cut or destroy as they saw fit. During the 

 succeeding half century a large number of private forests 

 were wiped out. Even after public control of the denuda- 

 tion of private woodlands was restored, its application 

 was extremely lenient for many years. Authorizations to 

 destroy 489,000 hectares (1,222,500 acres) were granted 

 subsequent to 1828, no records prior to that date bein.^ 

 available. The demand for cereals, particularly in 

 northern France, had much to do with the large aggre- 

 gate decrease in the forested area of the country, for 

 many of the French forests in the plains occupied land 

 similar in character to that under cultivation. In south- 

 ern France and in her mountains, the predominance of 

 pastoral industries led to a gradual diminution in the area 

 of woodland from excessive grazing. 



Modern French writers are agreed that this suddenly 

 gained liberty of the Revolution was abused ; that the 

 transition from the restrictive guardianship of the sov- 

 ereign to the new regime of "laissez faire" was too rapid 

 and the land owners too inadequately prepared to use 

 their freedom. But the movement as a whole was an 

 inevitable and necessary part of the change from the old 



' 



AN AMERICAN SAWMILL AMONG SAND DUNES WHICH WERE BARREN WASTES 75 YEARS AGO 



