INTEODTICTION. 19 



Pyrenees have gone on steadily falling 'off In extent as well as in 

 condition. Each century diminishes what it receives by half. 

 Moreover, during the last century the big trees were felled or des- 

 troyed in masses. Prescriptive rights of a most disastrous nature 

 and unlicensed grazing have completed the work of destruc- 

 tion, and at the present day one third of the area of the state 

 forests consists of blanks. The forests belonging to Municipalities 

 are universally relegated to hill tops presenting the greatest 

 difficulty of access to cattle. Whereas in the Alps the grazing begins 

 in the highest forests and works on downwards, in the Pyrenees, 

 on the contrary, it begins by attacking those lowest down and works 

 its path of ruin upwards. The condition of the communal forests 

 just referred to is even sadder than that of the state forests. Never- 

 theless they still cover large areas, which due control exercised over 

 the grazing would suffice to restore in a short time. 



TheLandes of Grascony contain at the present day 1,750,000 acres 

 of pine forests belonging for the most part to private proprietors. 

 The pines are tapped for resin without the moderation necessary for 

 their proper development and longevity. But the State has an 

 opportunity of setting the right example in the wooded dunes it still 

 possesses, for it is possible to combine the production of resin with 

 that of timber. 



In Corsica private forests are represented chiefly by the 

 maJcis. But 112,5C0 acres of valuable forest, now free from 

 grazing and all prescriptive rights, still remain to the State. 

 A little husbanding and thrift in the exploitations for half a 

 century, while waiting until the standing stock has acquired some 

 value, will be sufficient to transform in the most happy manner 

 these forests, which, very soon perhaps, will be a last and supreme 

 resource for the island. Under the eftects of grazing, the forests 

 made over in full proprietary right to Communes, in lieu of the pre- 

 scriptive rights formerly enjoyed by them but now bought off, are, it 

 is said, visibly disappearing. 



The distribution of the state forests in France is quite different 

 from that of the communal woods. The former are grouped together 

 in large masses chiefly in the North-East, in Lorraine, in Burgundy 

 and in Champagne. The better amongst them have descended to 

 us from the domains of the ancient Dukes and Counts of those pro- 

 vinces. The neighbourhood of Paris, Normandy, and the banks ol 

 the Loire still contain some very fine forests belonging to the State. 



