42 PEACTICAL FOEESTKY. 



lord. In order to make the life of his serfs, who were useful both 

 as taxpayers and as fighting men, easier, and so increase their num- 

 ber, he gave them the privilege of taking from his forest the wood 

 which they required. For similar reasons the wealthy religious 

 houses, like that of the Grande Chartreuse, made grants of land and 

 of rights in the forest. But after a time the number of peasants 

 increased so much that their wants absorbed nearly the whole produce 

 of the woodlands. Then it was found necessary to limit the pre- 

 scriptive rights to forest products by restricting them to certain parts 

 of the forest, or to make an end of them by exchanging them for the 

 absolute ownership of smaller areas. Thus many of the communities, 

 to which, and not to individual peasants, these rights belonged, came 

 to possess forests of their own. But the communes, as they were 

 called, managed their forests badly, and about three hundred years 

 ago the Government was forced to intervene. Under the manage- 

 ment of officers of the government forest service, the results from 

 the communal forests have been excellent. At present these forests 

 not onlj' supply fuel to the villages which own them, but in some 

 cases they produce enough to pay all the village taxes as well. 



Germany. — Germany still holds the high position in forest science 

 which began with Hartig and Cotta. The German forest schools, 

 of which there are seven of the higher grades, are still among the very 

 best, and the studj^ of forestry, both in the schools and in the forest 

 experiment stations, is eagerly pursued. The forests in Prussia, 

 Saxony, and other German States are admirably managed, and yield 

 important returns. The total value of the German forests, public 

 and private, is said to be about $4,500,000,000. 



France. — Forestry in France has long been associated with the 

 names of famous men. Henry of Navarre and his friend and minister, 

 Sully; Palissy, the great potter, who called the neglect of the forest 

 prevalent in his time "not a mistake, but a calamity and a curse for 

 France;" Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV; the botanist Duhamel 

 du Monceau; Buff on, the celebrated naturalist, are among the men 

 to whom France owes the rise and progress of her present excellent 

 forest policy. Their peculiar service was to lay the foundation, both 

 in law and in public opinion, upon which modern forestry in France 

 now rests. 



The forests of the French Government are admirably managed. 

 They cover only about 2,750,000 acres, but they yield a net return 

 each year of more than $2 per acre. Besides handling their national 

 forests with great intelligence and success, the French foresters have 

 done much for the general progress of forestry. They developed the 

 art of reforesting denuded mountains, and were the first to plant trees 

 on moving sand dunes along the seashore. More than 150,000 acres 



358 



