PROTECTION 203 



Inspection of Mont-de-Marsan, with the trees averaging 40 years in 

 age, the average yields per acre were as follows: (1) Timber products, 

 22 pines removed, with a volume excluding branches of 3.6 cubic meters, 

 about 1| cords (or roughly 750 board feet). (2) Resin products, total 

 yield for the 5 years of tapping, including the pine tapped ahve, 340 quarts. 



The average return per acre from the timber was 13.42 (average price 

 95 cents per cubic meter on the stump). During this period the value 

 of resin varied from $10.61 to $17.37 a barrel (of 340 quarts). Exclud- 

 ing 50 per cent of the value of the resin as the labor cost the net value 

 of resin rights was $1.98 per 100 quarts, and the total average yield from 

 thinnings was $10.15 per acre ($2.03 per year). Thus the yield from 

 resin is twice that of timber. 



During the same period the clear-cut regeneration fellings yielded 

 an average of 131 trees per acre (80 to 84 trees per acre is a fairer average), 

 and the yield per acre was 48 cubic meters — 6,500 quarts of resin (about 

 10.9 thousand feet board measure) at a total net price of $116.76 per 

 acre '^ for land which, had it not been forested, would not only have 

 been worthless to-day but would even have constituted a menace. 



For the year 1905 the gross receipts from all the State forests in the 

 Landes Department amounted to $111,788, with an expense for adminis- 

 tration of $15,976, making a net revenue of $91,941 for 56,762 acres, 

 or a net yield per acre per year of $1.67. In 1889 there was a deficit of 

 $7,008 in the Landes. Eight years later, 1897, there was a net surplus 

 of $5,793 while, after eight years more, the revenue had increased to 

 almost $96,500. This increase in revenue was partly in producing 

 capacity and partly in the increased value of the product. 



It is interesting to compare the yield in cubic meters, steres, and 

 hectoliters (100 quarts) with the annual charge.^' According to data 

 furnished by De Lapasse in one locality 62,840 trees furnished a total of 

 14,640 cubic meters, 5,489 steres, and 7,900 hectoliters at a total annual 

 charge of $9,090. 



On a unit basis per tree the yield is 0.28 cubic meter, 0.08 stere, 

 0.12 hectoliter at an annual cost to the operator of 13 cents. The rela- 

 tive yield from thinnings is naturally very much less, since the trees 

 are that much smaller. 



Protection. — When the dune reclamation work began, the commission 

 (see p. 173) found it very necessary to have a permanent local force to 

 prevent grazing trespass. This trespass was considered forest trespass 

 and therefore forest guards were placed in charge, and as early as 1809 

 the Prefect of the Gironde decreed that "burning can under no circum- 



" Huff el cites the average net yield as $2.22 per acre per year, which agrees closely 

 with Bert's estimate of $2.16. 

 =3 Huffel, Vol. I, p. 183. 



