FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 29 



COGNAC. 



REPORT OF VICE-CONSUL COATES. 



The total area of the XXIVth commission of the woods and fprests is 

 314,363 hectares, 35,148 of which alone are under the control-of the French 

 State ; that is to say, belonging to the commons or public establishments, 

 and are subjected to the administration of the woods and forests. 



Out of these 35,148 hectares under control 34,131 belong to the State, 

 691 hectares to the commons, and 326 to public establishments. The surplus 

 of the forests, say 279,215 hectares, is composed of private forests not under 

 the direct control of the administration of forests. 



There are no free forests belonging to the State, and pasture in them is 

 only granted to cattle belonging to the guards and brigadiers of the forests. 

 In the forests of the commons the grazing of horned cattle, but not of sheep 

 and goats, is authorized in the forests of lofty trees and in the cope more 

 than ten years. Private forests are subject to no rule but that desired by the 

 owners. 



FORESTRY ORGANIZATION. 



The XXIVth commission of the woods and forests is under the rule of the 

 keeper, who is in direct correspondence with the central administration at 

 Paris, and who resides at Niort with an adjunct inspector as chief of the 

 offices. It comprises the departments Deux Sevres, Vendee, Vienne and 

 Charente. The commissioner is under the immediate direction of inspectors 

 (four in the present case) residing at Niort, Poitiers, Royan and Sables 

 d'Olonne. They are called heads of the service. 



The inspectors are under the direction of adjunct inspectors, or general 

 keepers of the cantonments. In every inspection there ' are generally an in- 

 spector, a sub-inspector residing in the same place as the inspector acting in ■ 

 his stead in case of illness or absence, and a general keeper. The inspectors, 

 adjuncts and general keepers have under them brigadiers (who are' like the 

 under officers in the army), who receive their orders from the forest keepers, 

 the last class of the hierarchy. 



The commissioners, inspectors, inspectors adjunct and general keepers 

 are called by the collective name of forest agents, and are officers iij the army, 

 or similar to them. Brigadiers and keepers bear the collective name of forest 

 overseers. 



In the XXIVth commission are one commissioner, two inspectors, two 

 inspectors adjunct, acting as inspectors; two inspectors adjunct, head of the 

 cantopment; an inspector adjunct, head of the offices of the commission; 

 two general keepers, twenty brigadiers, five of whom belong to the offices of 

 the commission, and one of the four inspectors; and eighty-four keepers, 

 seventy-four of whom are demesnial and ten commons. The demesnial 

 keepers are paid by the State and overlook the forests of the State. ■ The 

 keepers of the commons are paid by the commons. The commissioners' 



