60 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



I have found much that is interesting in details of the 

 rights of usage in regard to pasturage prevailing formerly 

 in different parts of France. The general rights are 

 defined in the ordinance. 



The rights of usage in regard to wood was generally 

 the right to gather firewood in the forests ; but there 

 were rights of usage much more comprehensive than 

 this. 



The number of usagers in France was at one time very 

 great; but much has been done to reduce and restrict 

 them, so as to keep their legal claims within what the 

 forests can meet without suffering devastation. 



Important restrictions were imposed on dwellers in the 

 vicinity of forests. They were prohibited from settling 

 within the precincts or on the borders of the forest ; all 

 huts or other erections made by vagrants within a half 

 league of a crown forest were destroyed, and the people 

 were prohibited from rebuilding them within two leagues 

 of the forest under pain of exemplary punishment. No 

 chateaux, farm steadings, or houses could be built within 

 half a league of a crown forest under pain of arbitrary fine, 

 and confiscation of the buildings. Certain trades were 

 prohibited within half a league of such forests. No one 

 could plant a wood within 100 perches of a crown forest ; 

 nor could any one living within the borders of the forest 

 engage in the wood trade. No timber could be used as 

 firewood ; nor could they make use of wood felled or cut 

 in making boundary trenches. All dwellers within two 

 leagues of a forest were responsible at civil law for the 

 doings of their waggoners, herds, and domestic servants, 

 and they were liable for all misdeeds of their tenants. 

 Proprietors of estates and woods adjacent to crown forests 

 were bound to separate them from these by ditches four 

 feet wide and four feet deep. They were bound to declare 

 to the registrar of the Maitrise what they designed each 

 year to fell, and they were forbidden to give wood to their 

 workmen in payment of wages. 



