INTRODUCTION 



THE following work embodies the results of a study of the 

 more important phases of forest practice in Corsica, Algeria, 

 and Tunisia. There has been attempted neither a complete 

 investigation of forestry in all its phases nor a summary of all 

 the multitudinous details of administration. The aim has 

 been rather to set forth the essentials of method which may 

 be applied directly in the United States, or which may be in- 

 directly of value to English speaking foresters. 



Germany and Austria are quite generally recognized, at 

 the present time, as leaders in forest technique. But from the 

 fact that at least ninety per cent of forests under French ad- 

 ministration are regenerated naturally, it follows that the re- 

 sults of French forest theory and administration, with Africa 

 and Corsica, cannot fail to be of patent and wide interest to 

 the forestry profession. 



The fixation of shifting sand dunes and their reclamation in 

 the Gironde and Landes, by the sowing of maritime pine; the 

 various methods of turpentine collection; the control of torrents 

 and reboisement in the Alps and Pyrenees; the management of 

 cork oak and the construction of fire lines in Algeria these 

 are only a few of the special problems which have been solved 

 by French foresters with an ingenuity that merits our admira- 

 tion as surely as their success commands our attention and 

 suggests a thorough and close study of their methods. Con- 

 sequently the extensive administration in some of France's over- 

 sea possessions should prove of interest. 



The information presented herein helps to attract attention 

 to the increasingly frequent possibility of using, so to speak, 

 natural rather than artificial means of putting our forest re- 

 sources to the highest use. If the evolution of forestry in the 



