FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



271 



This consular district comprises the entire departments of Eure, Somme, 

 Pas de Calais, The North, and a large portion of the Seine Inferieur. 



The control of the forests of these departments is given by the forest ad- 

 ministration to two chief commissioners, of whom the one has his official 

 seat at Rouen, No. 2, and the other at Amiens, No. 7. 



The reserve of Rouen includes the departments of the Seine Inferieure 

 and of the Eure. 



The term applied to the forests which belong to the state is "forets 

 domanials." These are subject to the forest regulations, that is to say, that 

 they are controlled in a special manner by the forestry code and decrees of 

 August I, 1827, promulgated more than twenty-three years later than the 

 Code Napoleon. 



This law differs in many respects from the law of 1669, prepared by 

 Colbert, and, though in the main an improvement, overlooks many impor- 

 tant regulations for perpetuating the forests which were contained in the old 

 law. 



Although the receipts from the products of the forests show little or no 

 increase, as sales of wood and timber have not been urged, the competition 

 of foreign woods making the price so low as to be unremunerative. 



The care given to them each year places them in a much improved con- 

 dition. 



The table below gives the extent of forest property in the two departments 

 of Seine Inferieure and Eure : 



These two departments are in the Forest Reserve No. 2, with headquar- 

 ters at Rouen. Each reserve is divided among a certain number of inspec- 

 tions. Each inspector has under his orders two chiefs of cantons, a deputy 

 inspector, and a keeper-general. The deputy inspector acts in the absence 

 of the inspector. There are five of these inspections in the two departments. 

 The officer-in-chief at Rouen is called "conservator of forests," and he is 

 assisted in his duties by a deputy inspector or keeper-general. 



Under the deputy inspector are brigadiers, each one having under him 

 four or five keepers or "officers in charge," each of whom has in charge a 

 portion of forest, not exceeding 600 hectares. 



The products can be classified under two general heads : 



1. Those from the wood itself. 



2. Contingent products, such as the right of hunting, the removal of the 

 soil, such as stone, gravel, clay, &c., the right of passage through the forest, 

 and of taking water, &c. 



