20 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



of three or four feet; or, in hard, unprepared ground, the seeds or young 

 plants are placed in holes made with a "froche " or mattock. The live oak, 

 chestnut, cork tree, gall oak, carob tree, lavender, beech, ash, and sycamores 

 are planted in autumn, all others from the middle of March to the end of 

 April. 



Seeds of all the trees above mentioned are gathered abundantly in France 

 except the Austrian pine, the seeds of which are imported from the Styrian 

 Alps, and the carob, which, although it bears abundantly the podded seeds 

 which are used for the food of horses and cattle, is generally propagated from 

 seeds brought from Algeria and Spain. 



In nearly all the departments where tree planting is practiced to any im- 

 portant extent the government has nurseries where seeds are collected and 

 such varieties as grow best from sprouts are propagated in readiness for plant- 

 ing. At these nurseries, in fact throughout the forestry service, great kind- 

 ness and liberality is exercised toward all land owners who wish to undertake 

 forest culture on their own lands. Not only are they supplied gratis with 

 seeds and young trees, but the officers and men of the corps are instructed to 

 give them all possible encouragement and advice as to the best methods to be 

 pursued. It is, of course, only the ' more intelligent and far-sighted of the 

 peasants and proprietors who avail themselves of these opportunities to begin 

 improvements, the good results of which will be inherited mainly by future 

 generations; but the success of the system is now demonstrated, and it is be- 

 coming year by year more i popular among the people. At first there was a 

 strong resentment among the peasants against the withdrawal of so large a 

 part of the unenclosed lands of their communes from the range of their 

 flocks — for no sheep or goat or other domestic animal is allowed' upon ground 

 where trees have been replanted. This hostile feeling was neutralized in 

 some degree, as already stated, by the liberal wages paid by the state for tree 

 culture, and the disastrous floods of recent years have taught the lesson that 

 the reclothing of the hills and mountain slopes with forests is far more im- 

 portant than the pasturage which is thus temporarily withheld. 



From all this it will be apparent that forest culture in the Mediterranean 

 region of France is inspired by a diff'erent motive and involves greater diffi- 

 culties than would be encountered in all but the far western Territories of the 

 United States. Wherever there is arable land in France it is more valuable 

 for cultivation than for forest growing, and throughout this district the area 

 of replanted forest in each department is in almost exact proportion to the 

 altitude of its surface and its worthlessness for the purposes of agriculture. 



The right of pasturage, as already intimated, is freely granted upon all 

 waste and unoccupied lands, the only formality required being that of obtain- 

 ing a license from the departmental authorities. This pasturage is generally • 

 however, exceedingly thin and poor. Grass grows but sparingly on all unir- 

 rigated land in Southern France, and the most valuable parts of many high 

 pasture lands are the aromatic shrubs and plants upon which sheep and goats 

 browse for want of better nourishment. 



