It is in the great State forest ranges of St. Gobain and 

 Coucy (Aisne) that the war has worked its greatest ravages 

 and where reconstruction work can be carried on most effectu- 

 ally, although the Board, so far as possible, is initiating the 

 new work simultaneously in every district affected. 



Among the measures put into effect by the Forest Board 

 to assist in meeting the situation are those of permitting a 

 more liberal degree of cutting to supply immediate require- 

 ments which involves an abandonment of the policy of re- 

 serving certain stock of exceptional size for a future date; to 

 increase the number of young and medium trees whose annual 

 growth is important and to sacrifice the older barks of slow- 

 growing possibilities; the utilization of all non-permanent 

 resources; the reduction of, railway transportation rates on 

 timber in order to facilitate its movement; the greater utiliza- 

 tion of the home-grown resinous species which in the past 

 have been disregarded in favour of those of the Northern 

 European countries on account of their assumed inferior quali- 

 ty; the working of France's colonial forests, especially those 

 of French Western Africa, where, investigation has shown, 

 there are vast forest resources suitable for French require- 

 ments but which have formerly been ignored in preference 

 to imports from Scandinavia; bringing into accessibility the 

 State forests in the Pyrenees which have hitherto not been 

 economically exploited owing to lack of transportation facili- 

 ties and other causes. 



Another measure, and one which the Board regards as of 

 importance, provides for State assistance in the management 

 and development of Communal woods and forests by a system 

 of money grants to the municipalities owning forests to enable 

 them to construct roads and other works for forest better- 

 ment, such grants to be repayable out of the net proceeds of 

 the timber sold. 



Regarding the policy of private or State ownership of 

 forests, French authorities believe there is ample opportunity 

 for both systems but regard re-afforestation on an extensive 

 scale as essentially work for the State, holding it to be more 

 or less economically unsound for private capital to engage in 

 the work. 



