

dm- proportion of woodland in England and Ireland is, therefore, a question 

 imt i)l' geographical hut almost purely of economical expediency, to be decided by 

 tin- comparative direct pecuniary return from forest growth, pasturage and plough 

 land. 



In Kngland, aboriculture, the planting and nursing of single trees has, until 

 i;]iarativrly recent times, been better understood than sylviculture, the sowing 

 and training of the forest. But this latter branch of rural improvement now 

 receives great attention from private individuals, though not, so far as I know, 

 from the National ( iovernment, except in the East Indian provinces, where the 

 forestal department has ..assumed great importance. Many laws for the protec- 

 tion of the forest, as a cover for game and for the preservation of ship timber, 

 wore enacted in England before the 17th Century. The Statutes I Eliz. c. XV., 

 \ui Eliz. c. v., and XXVII Eliz. c. xix., which have sometimes been understood 

 i- designed to discourage the manufacture of iron, were obviously intended to 

 I MX- vent the destruction of large and valuable timber, useful in ordinary and 

 naval architecture, by burning it for charcoal. The injury to the forges was 

 accidental, not the purpose of the laws. 



In Scotland, where the country is for the most part broken and mountainous, 

 the general destruction of the forests has been attended with very serious evils, 



O / * 



and it is in Scotland that many of the most extensive British forest plantations 

 have now been formed. 



FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



The preservation of the woods was one of the wise measures recommended 

 to France by Sully, in the time of Henry IV., but tho advice was little heeded, 

 and th> destruction of the forest went on with such alarming rapidity, that, two 

 generations later, Colbert uttered the prediction : " France will perish for want of 

 wood." Still, the extent of wooded soil was very great, and the evils attending 

 its diminution were not so sensibly felt, that either the Government or public 

 opinion saw the necessity of authoritative interference, and in 1750 Mirabeau 

 estimated the remaining forests of the kingdom at seventeen millions of hectares 

 (42,000,000 acres). 



In I860 they were reduced to eight millions (19,769,000 acres) or at the rate 

 of 82,000 hectares (202,000 acres) per year. 



In a country and a climate where the conservative influences of the forest are 

 so necessary as in France, trees must cover a large surface and be grouped in 

 large masses, in order to discharge to the best advantage the various functions 

 assigned to them by nature. A large part of its territory is mountainous, sterile, 

 and otherwise such in character or situation, that it can be more profitably 

 devoted to the growth of wood than to any agricultural use. 



The conservative action of the woods in regard to torrents and inundations 

 has been generally recognized by the public of France as a matter of prime 

 importance, and the Government has made this principle the basis of a special 

 system of legislation in the protection of existing forests, and for the formation 

 of new. The clearing of woodland, and the organization and functions of a police 

 for its protection are regulated by a law bearing date June 18th, 1859, and pro- 

 vision was made for promoting the restoration of private woods by a statute 

 adopted on the 28th July, 1860. This latter law appropriated 10,000,000, francs 

 to be expended, at the rats of 1,01)0,000 francs per year, in executing or aiding 

 the replanting of woods. 



