FOREST-OWNER S REQUIREMENTS. 445 



customary to assign the mauagement of a sufficient area of 

 forests to the administration of the works, in order that the 

 forests might be managed purely in their interests (such forests 

 are termed in German, Saaljarst, Montanforst or Reservatforst). 

 Experience has, however, shown that such an allotment of 

 entire forests to mines, &:c. has not resulted in any benefit to 

 the forests, on the contrary, in some cases, they have been thus 

 destroyed. Forests have therefore, recently, as in Bavaria, been 

 withdrawn from the administration of the mines, and the neces- 

 sary wood is now furnished to them by the Forest Department.* 

 (c) Wood required by the Department of Public Works. — The 

 requirements of the Public Works Department for rectifying 

 river-banks, for railways and less frequently for public buildings, 

 gave rise to similar assignments of forests (such as coppice for 

 growing fascines) to that department, with this object in view. 

 Experience has shown that it is disadvantageous to the State to 

 deliver timber for building purposes to the public works officials 

 from the Stato forests, the procedure being uneconomical and 

 inimical to the State budget. Even forest buildings do not 

 form an exception to this rule. 



[As the French Navy has still the right of preemption of wood, 

 chiefly oak, in the French State forests, a short account of the pro- 

 cedure in such cases will be useful. Royal ordinances dating from 

 A.D. 1318 allowed the French Navy the right of preemption of wood 

 in all the forests of France, whether private or otherwise, and agents 

 were sent by the naval authorities to mark trees in the felling-areas. 

 This right continued up to 1838, when it was abandoned (with, 

 however, the power of resuming it if necessary) in ftivour of purchas- 

 ing the required wood in the open market. After the latter procedure 

 had been in force for 20 years, the right of marking suitable trees in 

 the State forests was resumed by the Navy in 1858. In 1866, rules 

 regai-ding wood for the Navy were framed by the Forest and Marine 

 Departments, and may be summarised as follows : — 



Before the trees are marked for felling in any State forest, the 

 agents of the Navy mark with a circle of oil paint any trees in com- 

 partments Avhere fellings are in progress, which they may consider 

 suitable for naval construction. These trees are then marked for 

 felling at the usual time, and in the same way as the other trees in 



* [A similar case is the Kurnaon Iron Mining Company's Forest Grant, in the 

 N. W. Provinces of India, which has now been resumed by the State. — Tr.] 



