118 



The principal object of the following pages is to sketch in a brief and 

 summary manner the system of management adopted for these forests, so that 

 some general idea may be formed of what the business of the French forest 

 department consists in, and what the results of their labors have been, up to the 

 latest date to which information is available under each head. The organization 



of the professional staff of the department, and the manner in which it is recruited,, 

 will then be explained 



STATE FORESTS. 



The forests now belonging to the State owe their origin to one or the other of 

 the following sources : They either formed part of the ancient royal domain, as it 

 was consituted at the time of the ordinance of 1669, or of the sovereign domains- 

 united to France since that year ; or else they were ecclesiastical property 

 confiscated at the time of the revolution in 1790, or they have been more recently 

 acquired by purchase, legacy or gift. About one-half of them are ancient roya 

 domains. 



The State forests were formerly of much greater extent then they are at 

 present. In 1791 they covered an area of 18,166 square miles, which was reduced 

 to 3,792 square miles in 1876, the i eduction being almost soleby due to sales- 

 effected for the benefit of the exchequer ; but the loss of territorty after the war 

 of 1870 was the cause of a diminution of 374 square miles. The records show 

 that, between 1814 and 1870, 1,362 square miles of State forests were sold for 

 nearly twelve and one-quarter million pounds sterling ( or about .14 per acre; 

 but since 1870 no such sales have taken place, and since Ib76 the area has been 

 somewhat increased by purchases and otherwise. It now includes 33 square 

 miles of lorest owned jointly with private persons, and 450 acres are temporarily 

 held by the families of some of Napoleon I.'s generals, whose right will in the 

 course of time either lapse or be commuted. The remainder of the area is owned 

 absolutely by the State, but the enjoyment of the produce does not belong 

 exclusively to the treasury, for, as will be explained hereafter, certain groups of 

 rightholders participate in it. 



In the next section, the principal points of laws relating to the communal 

 forests, and of their management by the State Forest Department, will be brought 

 to notice ; while in the subsequent sections of this chapter the work of the depart- 

 ment in connection with the State and the communal forests will be briefly 

 treated of in such a manner as to bring out and compare the results obtained in. 

 the two classes of forests. 



FORESTS BELONGING TO COMMUNES, SECTIONS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 



The territory of France is divided into 39,989 communes or village com- 

 munities, of which about one-third are forest proprietors. Certain groups or 

 sections of the inhabitants have, however, rights and own property, apart from 

 the commune in which they reside, and these are also owners of considerable 

 areas of woodland. Those forests belonging to communes or sections, which are- 

 susceptible of being worked on a regular system, are managed directly by the 

 State Forest Department for the benefit of their owners, the principal features of 

 this management being as follows, viz. : The laws relating to State forests are,, 

 generally speaking, but with certain exceptions, applicable to them ; they cannot 

 be alienated or cleared without the express and special sanction of the govern- 

 ment in each case ; they cannot be divided up among the members of tne com- 

 munity ; the annual sales of produce are effected by the State forest officers, and 



