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most required by the consumers, but the prices realized are not always so good as 

 those which the produce might have been made to fetch, had it been cut up in 

 some other manner. 



Timber sold standing, usually commands a higher rate than it does when 

 disposed of in any other manner, and for this and the other reasons that have 

 been given, the lir>t of the three systems is the one generally adopted in both the 

 State and the communal forests. This method of sale is not generally followed 

 in other European countries ; but the French system has stood test of experience; 

 and it is greatly facilitated by the honesty which, as a general rule, prevails in the 

 tiade to which it has given rise. In consequence of the absence or insufficiency 

 of export roads in Corsica, and of the difficulty experienced in getting purchasers 

 who are willing to take the produce for a single year only, a law was passed in 

 1840, which enacted that the timber to be cut in any part of that island during a 

 -fries of years not exceeding twenty, might be sold at one time to a single 

 purchaser, the State, at the expiry of the term, becoming possessed of all works 

 erected by him without liability to the payment of compensation for them. A 

 few of such contracts exist to the present day : but both the system of roads 

 and the timber trade having largely developed during the last forty-live years, 

 the practice of entering upon such engagements is gradually dying out. 



Minor product:. Receipts on account of minor produce form an insignificant 

 portion of the gross revenue derived from the French forests, the most important 

 item being that which is due to the sale of hunting and shooting permits. Produce 

 of this class is not sold so much as a source of revenue, as to enable the agricul- 

 tural population to make use of it, without giving rise to the idea that they are 

 entitled to it by right. It is sold by private contract, the price being tixed by 

 the conservator, or by the prefect, or the mayor, in the case of the State and 

 communal forests respectively. The conditions under which such sales are 

 effected in the State forests are determined by each conservator, with reference to 

 local circumstances, and he retains the power to forbid the sale from the com- 

 munal forests of any classes of produce, the removal of which would, in his opinion, 

 be detrimental from a cultural point of view. Payment for minor produce is 

 often accepted, especially by the communes, in the form of days' work done in the 

 forest. 



Wood supplied to the admiralty. Every year a notice is sent by the forest 

 department to the admiralty, showing the localities in which trees suitable for 

 naval purposes are to be felled ; and the latter department then notifies the 

 number and description of those which it desires to have reserved in each forest. 

 The purchaser of the timber sold from these blocks, fells, barks and conveys the 

 trees marked for the above purpose to an appointed place in the forest, where 

 they are inspected and taken over by the admiralt}' officials, who cut from them 

 what they want, the rest of the wood being sold by the forest department in the 

 ordinary manner. The forest officer and the marine engineer then agree upon 

 the sum to be paid as the price of the wood removed, and as compensation, to 

 cover losses caused by the depreciation in value of that rejected, and the account 

 i> subsequently adjusted in the financial department. Up to the year 1837 the 

 admiralty had the light to select trees everywhere, including the private forests ; 

 but the -ysu'in was not found to answer, and it was abandoned in that year. 

 Even under existing regulations a very .small proportion of the wood used by the 

 admiralty is obtained directly from the forests, the greater part of it being bought 

 in the open market. 



