FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



17 



lowed later by the replanting of trees and grass in situations where the de- 

 nudation of mountain slopes had become dangerous to the adjacent valleys. 

 For these reasons the forest culture in this region has been hitherto mainly 

 for protective purposes rather than to reclothe the country with timber for 

 industrial uses. 



The trees chosen have been of the species which are strongly rooted, ca- 

 pable of holding their own against flood, frost, and wind rather than those 

 which are simply valuable for firewood or lumber. Wherever it was possible 

 due preference has been given to the chestnut, the cork oak, the carob tree, 

 and others which yield some form of useful fruit, but the first requisite in all 

 high situations has been to replant the pines, larches, and firs, whose dense 

 evergreen foliage and debris of fallen leaves and needles would form a cover- 

 ing which, with the mosses that grow in damp shadows, would retain the 

 water of snow and rains and preserve the moisture of the earth beneath. 

 Forest culture on an effective scale in this country would be far beyond the 

 unaided resources of most individual land owners, and the entire system, as 

 it now exists, is the work of the general government, which educates and 

 trains the foresters, purchases and appropriates lands where tree planting 

 {riboisement') is deemed necessary, plants and cultivates new forests, and fur- 

 nishes tree plants and seeds gratis to private land owners who need them for 

 practical forest culture. The system employs a large corps of officers and 

 men, and constitutes a special bureau of the national government. 



The consular district of Marseilles embraces nine departments and the 

 Island of Corsica. 



The following table will show the total area of each department, its pro- 

 portion of waste lands, pastures, and forests in 1878, as well as the quantity 

 of its woodlands which were held respectively by the state, by communes, and 

 by individual proprietors : 



From these statistics it will be seen that not less than 3,765,886 acres, or 

 more than one-fourth of the entire area of this district is waste land, useless 

 except for the scanty and wretched pasturage which grows upon part of it, 

 E. F. 3 



