131 



These figures are intended to give a general idea of the manner in which, 

 notwithstanding the increased value of the produce the relative rate of interest 

 declines as the age to which the trees are left standing is prolonged. They 

 have no claim to absolute accuracy, even as representing the average of French 

 forests, and still less can they be assumed to apply to the forests of other 

 countries. They serve, however, to explain what has been previously said, viz., 

 that on account of the higher rate of interest which coppice, generally speaking, 

 yields, as well as for other reasons, it is a more suitable system for communes 

 than hio-h forest ; and this remark applies with equal and even greater force 

 to private forests. 



RIGHTS OF USER. 



The principal rights of user are those relating to timber, firewood and 

 grazing ; but there is also a small number of others, such as those which 

 permit the cutting of turf, the collection of dead leaves, and the like injurious 

 practices. In the State forests the right-holders are, almost without exception, 

 village communities ; the instances in which private persons possess rights in 

 them being extremely rare. The communal forests are, comparatively speaking, 

 free from such burdens. 



The law of 1827 provided for the investigation and disposal of all claims 

 to exercise rights in the State forests, and barred the acquisition in them of any 

 fresh ones. Hence those only have now to be dealt with which have been 

 formally admitted and recorded in favour of the communities or persons who 

 possess them. 



The aim of the department has always been to free the forests from such 

 claims as far as possible, and the law provides for this being done in the 

 following manner, viz., all rights of wood may be commuted by surrendering a 

 portion of the forest itself in lieu of them, the terms being arranged by mutual 

 consent, or in case of disagreement by the courts ; but the State alone can 

 demand such a commutation, the right-holder cannot do so. Other rights, 

 including those of pasture, cannot be got rid of in the above manner, but the 

 State can buy them out by the payment of a sum of money, the amount of 

 which is either settled by mutual agreement or by the courts. The sale of 

 pasture rights cannot, however, be enforced in places where their exercise is 

 absolutely necessary for the inhabitants, the question of such necessity being, in 

 case of dispute, referred to the conseil de prefecture* subject to an appeal to the 

 conseil d'etat.^ The law also provides that the exercise of all rights which have 

 not been got rid of in either of the above ways, may be reduced by the forest 

 department with reference to the condition of the forests and the mean annual 

 production of the material in respect of which they exist ; and none can be 

 exercised otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the law and the 

 rules based on it. 



The principal features of the legislation regarding the exercise of wood- 

 rights are the following, viz. No wood can be taken which has not been formally 

 made over by the forest department ; persons who possess a right to dead fallen 

 wood cannot employ hooks or iron instruments of any sort in its collection ; 

 when firewood is made over standing in the forest, it is felled, cut up and taken 

 out by a contractor, selected and paid by the right-holders, but previously 

 approved by the forest department ; the partition of the wood among the inhabit- 



* An administrative tribunal, established in each department of France. 



t The central administrative tribunal, established at Paris for hearing appeals from the decisions of 

 the conseils de prefecture. 



