FORESTRY IN ITALY. 1 89 



keepers, and have postage allowed them in their communications with the 

 minister and with the judicial and other authorities of the department. The 

 district sub-inspectors have their office and residence assigned to them, and 

 communicate post free with the authorities of their district, with the inspector 

 and other officers. The object of their appointment is the preservation and 

 improvement of the woods in their district subject to forest law. To this 

 end, at periods appointed by the inspector, they visit annually the said woods, 

 and especially those which are most mountainous and wild, to ascertain the 

 condition in which they are kept, and the efficiency of the keepers in carry- 

 ing out their duties, and they suggest to the inspector whatever provisions 

 appear likely to improve the service. They form projects for the restoration 

 of woods, for the cultivation of lands, and they supply information and 

 advice for the contracts and conditions for the letting of woods and the sale 

 of timber. They choose and mark those plants which are to be preserved 

 for purposes of propagation at the fall of timber ; they examine and verify 

 the claims for authorization of change of culture in case of lands subject to, 

 forest law, and at the end of each year they inform the inspector, by means 

 of statistical reports and prospectuses, of all the service which has been per- 

 formed during the year in the district, including the decisions given by the 

 judicial authorities in the case of every breach of the forest laws which has 

 been proved by the keepers. 



In respect of the revenue of the government forests, it is not possible to 

 obtain any information, inasmuch as in the province of Naples there are no 

 crown woods which are inalienable, which alone in Italy are directly admin- 

 istered by the government in those provinces where such woods are found. 



As to the forests in this district which belong either to the crown or to 

 corporations or other communities or to private persons, being all maintained 

 simply with a view to their being fit for cutting timber, they are divided into 

 sections, and one section is cut each year; when their natural growth has ar- 

 rived at the maturity allowed in each region, according to the purposes for 

 which the timber is used. 



When said timber is used for beams, boards or staves of barrels, or other 

 wood-work, the trees are usually cut every fifteen or eighteen years. When it 

 is used for vine poles it is cut every ten or twelve years, and when it is used for 

 barrel hoops, for baskets and other small domestic purposes, then it is cut 

 down every five or seven years. At whatever period the trees are cut fifty 

 trees have to remain on every hectare for purposes of propagation. The trees 

 are cut close to the ground, and with an oblique section, and in season, which, 

 in this province, is allowed from September to March ; only in certain ele- 

 vated and cold situations the committee usually allows, when requested, a 

 prolongation of the season throughout April. The arrangements of the com- 

 mittee for the culture of wopds and the fall of timber in this province are 

 based directly on the fundamental premises of the forest laws, and, therefore, 

 in deference to those principles the administration of woods and forests does 

 not concern itself with the pecuniary management of the woods which are 



