128 



.^applied to the war department. The requirements of the war 

 department are met, as far as possible, from the State forests, the trees being: 

 marked and felled by the forest department,and removed either directly by the mili- 

 tary authorities, or by the forest department at their cost. The account is adjusted 

 in the financial department. But the amount of wood so supplied is very small, as r 

 except in cases where the State forests lie near the fortifications or garrison 

 towns, it is found more convenient and cheaper to purchase what is required in 

 the market. 



ROADS AND BUILDINGS. 



Without roads, which are required in order to render the forest accessible 

 and to facilitate the export of produce, this form of the natural riches of a country 

 cannot be utilized ; the construction of good export roads being one of the most 

 important means than can be adopted for raising the forest revenue., Thus in 

 Corsica, where, before 1850, the State forests did not produce more than 200 a 

 year, the annual revenue derived from them was raised in 1868 to 8,000, the 

 improvement being due almost entirely to the development of the communications. 

 At the end of 1867 there were 2,440 miles of metalled, and 5,380 miles of unmet- 

 ailed, roads in the State forests, and since that year their length has been at least 

 doubled. 



The great importance of accommodating the forest guards in suitable houses 

 within the forests is fully recognized; and out of 3,200 guards, 1,400 are lodged 

 in 1,213 houses, the remainder of them being granted allowances to lodge them- 

 selves in neighboring villages. The proportion of roads and buildings in the 

 communal forests is much less than in the State forests, partly because the com- 

 munes have to pay for their construction, and funds are not always available, but 

 partly also because the average size of these forests, being smaller, roads and 

 guards' houses within them are not needed to- the same extent. 



At the end of 1867 there were 126 saw-mills in the State forests, all worked 

 by water-power. 



Timber-slides, sledge-roads, wire-rope tramways, and such like means of 

 exporting the wood, are very little used in France. A great deal of timber is 

 required for their construction and maintenance, and, considering the price that wood 

 of all kinds can command, it is found better and cheaper, even in mountainous 

 regions, to make permanent roads suitable for timber carriages and carts. They 

 are to be found on)y in a few localities where the conditions are exceptional. 



Portable iron tramways have not yet. come into general use as a means of 

 exporting timber from the forests, and it is believed that there is only one in use 

 in France at the present time, viz., that at Baccarat at the base of the Vos^es ; 

 but the advantages which the employment of this means of transport affords will 

 doubtless shortly be better understood than at present, and a development of the 

 system is to be anticipated, at any rate, in the forests of the plains. The floating 

 of large timber is almost unknown ; but firewood for the supply of Paris is still 

 floated from the hills of Morvau down to the railways. 



FINANCIAL RESULTS OF WORKING. 



The profit derivable from a forest is dependent on a number of causes, among- 

 which may be mentioned the species of which the crop is composed, the depth 

 and nature of the soil, the climate, the system of culture, the proximity of great 

 centres of consumption of produce, and the existence of good lines of export. 



