2 IMPRESSIONS OF FRENCH FORESTRY 



import from 30 to 40 per cent of the wood products which she requires. 

 Hence the timber produced in her own forests not only has a high value 

 but is utilized far more closely than is now possible in the United States. 

 Intensive use of forest land — particularly the maintenance of forests on 

 large areas of mountain slopes and sand plains unfit for farm crops — 

 follows of necessity. But, to an almost equal degree, forestry in France 

 is an expression of the thrift, the conservatism, the love of beauty, and 

 the social inheritances of the French people. The genius of the French 

 for making the most of small things, developed by centuries of close and 

 frugal living, is expressed in the thrifty growing of wood on odds and 

 ends of poor land, in hedges, in the rows of trees bordering roads, canals, 

 and farms. The love of the chase and the social prestige conferred by the 

 ownership of forests and hunting preserves, so highly prized by the old 

 seigneurs, survive in modern France. Many forests have been preserved 

 to serve as a beautiful setting for a chateau. We will not interpret 

 forestry in France rightly as a purely economic development. The 

 national traits and habits of her people have contributed largely to it and 

 are reflected in her forest legislation and public policies. 



Forestry a National Art. — By the same token, the American is im- 

 pressed by the well-nigh universal understanding of forestry on the part 

 of the French people. Forestry in France is far more than a propaganda. 

 Like American agriculture, its practice is much older than its science. 

 It is a rural art, ingrained in the lives and habits and modes of thinking 

 of the people. Deputies in Parliament write newspaper articles on forest 

 fires or forest taxation or reforestation in the Alps. The local silviculture 

 is a part of the farm lore of the region — on the same footing as the care 

 of vineyards or the growing of wheat. It is not to be inferred that 

 forestry practice in France is uniformly good or that her forest policies 

 command united support. The French are far too individualistic a race 

 for that. Local antagonisms, as on the part of the Alpine mountaineers, 

 have handicapped public efforts; and the commercial considerations of 

 the moment have outweighed conservative forest management in the case 

 of many land owners, even on occasion in the case of the State itself. But 

 a striking difference exists between France and the United States in that 

 forestry with us is still largely a governmental activity alone, an educa- 

 tional development working downward from the top, whereas in France 

 it is an established art — a common possession of the rural population. 



SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC PHASES OF FRENCH FORESTRY 



The Special Legal Status of Forests. — Forest conservation has thus 

 become almost an instinct of the French people. This makes it easier to 

 understand certain public phases of forestry in France which are of 

 special interest and suggestiveness to Americans. First among them is 



