10 m-morfjjcnas. 



Out of the 22,500,000 acres under wood in France just a littT® 

 over 7,000,000 are under State management, and, therefore, in a posi- 

 tion to be treated with a view to the producrtion of large timber. 

 The remainder ia in the hands of private individuals, and caDnot be 

 relied upon to furnish for the national consumption any constant 

 considerable supply of timber. It therefore behoves us- for the pros- 

 perity of the country to obtain as large a quantity as possible of 

 large timber from the State and Communal Forests. To estimate the 

 extent of this task we must ascertain in what condition these forests 

 are, and in what proportion they are treated 



(i.) as High Forest, the principal object of which is the produc- 

 tion of timber, 



(ii.) as Simple Coppice, which aim& chiefiy at producing fire- 

 wood, and 



(iii.) as Compound Coppice, which combines tbe two preceding 

 methods of treatment. 



This proportional distribution is indicated approximately in tbfe 

 following tabular statement: — 



A. 



cres. 



^Belonging to the State 1,000,000 'J ^ 



High Forest -{ I>o. do. Communes and t® r9'^nAf>art 



( public fouHdatioDS 1,500,000) '^■^"^''J"*' 



f Belonging to tbe State, (two- ") 



I thirds at present under [ 



Compound I Conversion into High f o-rcAOrtm 



Coppice i Forest)......., ....about 1,250,000 H''^"'"^ 



j Belonging to Communes and I 



l__ to Public Foundations 2,500,00oj 



Simple ( Belonging to Communes and to Public 

 Coppice \ Foundations 750,000 



Total 7,0 00,000 



Private forests are fairly uniformly distributed throughout the 

 country. Each Department possesses an aggregate extent of such 

 forest varying from 100,000 to 300,000 acres. Still there are a few 

 notable exceptions, such as the Gascon Liandes which are covered by 

 an immense forest of the Pinus Pinaster, and tbe Var, the Dordofue 

 and the Nievre each of which contains, extensive tracts under simple 

 coppice and scrub. 



As regards the forests under the control of the Forest Department, 

 they are very unequally distributed. We have attempted to give 

 some idea of their distribution in the following Table, in which we 

 Lave divided France into nine forest regions of nearly equal extent 



