14 INTEODUCTION. 



The northern coast country and that round Parifs comprises the 

 richest and best cultivated provinces that feed Paris. The agricultural 

 produce of this region, which is remarkable for the industrial char- 

 acter of its cultivation, represents, area for area, double the average 

 value of all the regions taken together. This average is £4,360,000. 

 The forests here are relegated to the least fertile soils, and those under 

 state control occupy only 505,000 acres or about 3 per cent, of the 

 total area of the region. They yield the very best descriptions of 

 wood and timber, especially in the level country of the Department 

 of the North. The Lower Seine is distinguished for its fine beech 

 forests. 



The country round Paris, comprising the five last departments 

 of the region, is one of the best wooded districts of France. The 

 sandy composition of the soil has preserved from agriculture 

 1,000,000 acres of bbth state and private forests distributed in 

 large blocks. These comprise one-sixth of the area of the entire 

 region, being the average proportion for the whole of France. But 

 here the State still owns more than one-fourth of the aggregate 

 wooded area, including extremely rich forests, such as that of 

 Villers Cotterets, aad others of great beauty like those of Compiecne 

 and Fontainebleau. 



The Armorican Plateau, abounding in furze, possesses scarcely 

 any true forests, or, at least, is the poorest wooded region of all. In 

 the midst of the moor's and heather rise up a few groves or small 

 woods belonging to private owners. The few exceptions of woods 

 still remaining State . property, lie scattered about here and there, 

 and only serve as evidence that at one time Brittany did possess 

 forests. Fortunately the hedgerow trees planted between estates, 

 the sea which brings cheap wood from the northern countries of 

 Europe to the very doors of the population, and the cool ocean 

 breezes that are constantly blowing attenuate to a great extent the 

 effects, economical and climatic, of forest denudation. The three 

 departments of la Manche, of the Mayenne , and of the C6tes-du- 

 Nord have really no forests or woods under state control, and 

 throughout the whole district such a thing as a communal forest is 

 unknown. 



The plain of the Loire, the region of high forests of oak, forms in 

 the centre of France a generally fertile district, yet,, nevertheless, 

 intersected by large barren areas. On one of these stretches the 



