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works that are to be undertaken, and directs the subordinate officers in their 

 execution ; he is also the prosecutor in all cases taken into court for the suppression 

 of forest offences. The conservator exercises a general control over the divisional 

 officers employed under him ; and it is his duty to see that all work is directed 

 in accordance with the views of the government, as they are from time to time 

 communnicated to him from the central office. He alone has control of the 

 expenditure, and has power to issue oi'ders on the public treasury. As regards 

 his circle, the inspector-general is not an administrative officer, but he makes an 

 annual tour and is required to become personally acquainted with all the work 

 going on, and with the qualifications of all ranks of officers employed within it, 

 seeing that each fulfills his duties properly. During the remainder of the year 

 he is at head-quarters, where he is able to make use at the council-board of the 

 information collected during his tour, by advising the government both in the 

 issue of orders for works and in the selection of officers and subordinates for pro- 

 motion to fill the vacancies that may occur. 



It may here be mentioned that in addition to the charge of the State and 

 communal forests, the officers of the department are called upon to exercise certain 

 functions in the private forests, which will be explained hereafter. 



Working plans. A separate branch of the department is charged with the 

 framing of working plans for the most important forests, those for the smaller 

 ones being prepared by the local officers. The thirty-five inspectors, assistant 

 Hiid sub-assistant-inspectors, who are thus employed, are divided into nineteen 

 sections, which are at present working in twenty-four conservatorships. As the 

 operations are concluded in one locality, the sections are moved to another. The 

 officers are under the orders of the local conservator, who transmits their proposals 

 to head-quarters with his own opinions and recommendations. 



Consolidation of mountain slopes. The branch of the department to which 

 this vast under-taking is intrusted, is presided over by an inspector-general and 

 is composed of seventy-six officers of the superior staff, working in eighteen 

 centres. These officers are under the orders of the conservator within whose 

 charge they are employed ; and he transmits their projects and proposals to the 

 inspector-general, who is thus enabled, by the exercise of his supervision, to utilize 

 the experiences gained in the various localities for the benefit of the entire work. 

 The inspector-general reports to the director of the department all matters 

 relating to this undertaking which are to be laid before the council of adminis- 

 tration. 



Communal grazing arrangements. The five officers who are employed in 

 the three great mountain regions to prepare projects for the control of the 

 communal grazing arrangements, and the issue of rewards for improvements to 

 the pastures effected by the fruitieres (associations for cheese-making), are placed 

 in the same relation to the conservators as are the officers employed on the 

 consolidation of mountain slopes. 



Accounts. It is a fundamental principle of the French system of forest 

 administration that the forest officers have nothing to do with either the receipt 

 or the payment of money. They sell the produce by auction, or by the gran ti no- 

 of permits, as the case may be ; but the sums realized on account of such sale's 

 are paid by the purchasers directly into the public or communal treasury. The 

 inspector prepares a budget estimate for his proposed expenditure on works, and 

 when this has been sanctioned the various undertakings are commenced. Towards 

 the end of each month he submits to the conservator an estimate of his proposed 

 expenditure for the following month, during the last days of which that sum is 

 paid to him, and he disburses it at once, transmitting the vouchers, together with 

 the unexpended balance, should there be any, to the treasurer-general ; he keeps 



