THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WORKING PLANS 207 



SECTION TWO 



FRANCE 



The total area of France is 132,492,776 acres, of which * 

 18.17 per cent are covered with forests: 5,187,000 acres, or 77 

 per cent, hardwoods; 1,583,270 acres, or 23 per cent, conifers. 

 Of these 6,770,270 acres the state forests comprise only 12 

 per cent; the communal forests under state management, 

 20.2 per cent. 



The forests of France proper may be divided roughly into 

 (i) plain and (2) mountain forests. Under (i) may be included 

 the Parisienne zone, the Gironde, the Provengale; under (2) 

 the Vosges, Jura, Alpes, Plateau Central, and the Pyrenees. f 

 Corresponding to the topography the chief species are either 

 oak, beech, birch, elm, chestnut, and pine, or, in the mountains, 

 fir, spruce, pine, larch, and beech. La Savoie is the only region 

 of France where the spruce dominates in the forests. In the 

 Pyrenees and along the Mediterranean coast species are found 

 distinctive of the region, such as hook pine, d'Alep pine, mari- 

 time pine, cork oak, live oak, etc. 



The timber markets of France, while not so intensively de- 

 veloped as those of Germany, are still almost as omnivorous as 

 those of the neighbor state on the east because of the relatively 

 smaller per cent of forest land.f 



The methods of forest organization in France are in striking 

 contrast to those in Germany. The conditions of forest owner- 

 ship have strongly influenced French forest organization or 

 " Amenagcment," as it is called. Hitherto it has been gener- 

 ally assumed that privately owned forests are not suited to a 

 sustained yield management. It was thought that the difficulty 



* From Hiiffel: " Economic Forestiere." 



t For further details see article: " European Study for Foresters," by A. B. 

 Recknagel and Theodore S. Woolsey, Jr.; " Forestry Quarterly," V^olume X, 

 No. 3, pp. 417-439. especially pp. 429-430, 436-438. 



t In France 18.17; 25.88 per cent in Germany. 



