XVI INTRODUCTION 



Exactly the same law '^ applies to Algeria and Corsica and it is rigidly 

 enforced where large areas are to be deforested and where the public 

 interest is at stake. It does not apply to — 



1. Timber sown and planted and less than 20 years old. 



2. Parks or fenced gardens. 



3. Isolated stands less than 10 hectares (24.7 acres) in extent and if 

 not on mountains or slopes. But the private owner is exempt from his 

 land tax for " areas sown or planted on the summits or slopes of mountains 

 and upon the dunes or waste lands." 



This law against the clearing of land is fully justified by the forest his- 

 tory of France. A country with only about 18.7 per cent of forested 

 area cannot afford to allow further deforestation, even if unintentional. 

 For this reason excessive cutting or abusive treatment which would result 

 in complete destruction comes under the prohibition of this law. Who 

 would advocate further deforestation of mountain land after the disasters 

 of erosion in the French Alps and Pyrenees; or the deforestation of sand 

 dunes after the difficulties of reparation have been driven home? The 

 observance of this law against cutting strategic forests along frontiers has 

 been fully justified by the war of 1914, when France was protected against 

 German drives. Ample provision ' is made for the enforcement of the 

 law, and for reparation in case the law is violated, but on the other hand 

 its application is liberal when it comes to clear cutting, followed by natural 

 or artificial regeneration, as is the practice in the maritime-pine stands in 

 the Landes. 



The art of the French forester lies in his keen perception of the true 

 objective and in his simple methods. In thinnings he attacks the stand 

 in its top story, to allow the development of the trees that will form the 

 future commercial stand. He deals with stands rather than with trees — 

 the correct viewpoint. In the regulation of yield of selection forests he 

 computes the cut with an admittedly inaccurate formula, but he gets his 

 desired results — a reasonably equal annual cut — and he realizes that 

 with oft-repeated inventories the inaccuracies of the formula mil be cor- 

 rected. His mensuration is a rough guess, many refinements (used even 

 in the United States with its extensive conditions) being omitted as un- 

 necessary to the objective. If he makes an error in estimating the 

 volume of a sale this slack is taken up in the bidding, and there are 

 stringent laws against illegal combinations in restraint of true competi- 

 tion. Timber sales are kept small so as to give the small local millman a 

 chance as well as to increase competition. No logging is done by the 

 State, as in Germany, except experimentally in Alsace-Lorraine. 



2 See Part VI of the Algerian Forest Code, pp. 184-188, French Forests and Forestry, 

 Theodore S. Woolsey, Jr., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

 ' See Chapter X on " Legislation." 



