CHAPTEE III. 



GENERAL STATISTICAL REPORT. 



The simple inventory of the forest is not enough to enable one 

 to draw up the complete Organisation Project. It of course shows 

 what descriptions of produce can be furnished by the forest ; it gives 

 the quantity and the qualities of the different kinds of wood and 

 timber it is capable of producing ; it even affords data for finding out 

 when its various portions could be exploited. But for our purpose 

 it is indispensable to know besides : — (i) the wants and special 

 interests of the proprietor, the extent to which he can seek to satisfy 

 them and the means he has at his disposal in order to obtain that 

 result ; and (ii) the economic conditions in which the forest is placed, 

 and the state and form in which its produce is employed and brought 

 into consumption. 



An examination of the whole body of facts connected with pro- 

 duction forms the necessary point of departure for all forest organi- 

 sation. This examination we have termed the General Statisti- 

 cal Report of the forest. Its object is to ascertain what descrip- 

 tions of produce and what results the Organisation Project should 

 seek to obtain. This Report necessarily deals with facts relating to 

 three orders of perfectly distinct ideas :— (i) Administrative Circum- 

 stances, that is to say the facts on which are founded the rights of 

 proprietorship and the circumstances under which these rights are 

 exercised ; (ii) Physical Circumstances, i. e., the existin* factors 

 themselves of production, a knowledge of which furnishes a general 

 picture of the forest ; and (iii) Economic Circumstances or, if you 

 •will, the relation between the wants of the surrounding country in 

 wood and timber and the interests of the proprietor. 



