148 CORSICA 



trees necessarily cut during the operations; a volume table is 

 given to show how they will be calculated; payments are es- 

 sentially in advance of cutting; the period is 18 years for ordi- 

 nary felHng and 20 years where the trees to be felled are first 

 tapped, and no further extensions of time are permissible. 



Cutting in any one compartment (really treated as separate 

 sales) must ordinarily be finished within three years. An 

 extension of time may be secured, provided the extensions 

 for any one compartment do not exceed two years. The prin- 

 ciple of charging an extra rate for a longer cutting period seems 

 especially interesting. Since all trees had to be marked before 

 the special circular was issued or the sale made, there is pro- 

 vision for a remark in case the imprint "A. F." (administration 

 forestiere) is becoming obhterated.^'' 



The risks the purchaser must run during exploitation must 

 be heavy, because the government repeatedly shuns the re- 

 sponsibiHty not only for faulty estimates, acts of Providence, 

 such as fires, storms, avalanches, floods, windfall, insect attack, 

 but also for damage to roads or delays in road construction and 

 even in the event of the possible denial of special use privileges. 



The purchaser is to be granted, if there is no objection, the 

 necessary permits for special road construction, bridges, build- 

 ings and the Hke, but every improvement except temporary 

 houses and logging or sawmill equipment becomes the property 

 of the commune. For example, the purchaser may be obliged 

 to build a substantial bridge on concrete foundations, yet this 

 must be turned over free to the commune, when the sale is 

 completed. 



As in France, two methods of tapping are recognized in this 

 sale: (a) tapping to death when an area is formally opened 

 for felhng and {b) tapping ahve in compartments where cutting 

 is not in progress. In (a) there are no restrictions as to methods 

 but in (b) the following are the essential rules to be followed: 

 only one face is allowed at a time; this face must be begun above 

 the root collar and continued vertically; its maximum length 



50 One of the rangers is authority for the statement that if a mark is lightly 

 burned over the imprint will show for 30 or more years. 



