276 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



FORESTRY IN FRANCE.* 



By Majok F. Bailev, R.E. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE WOODS AND FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



In 1876, the last year for which anything hke complete details are available, the total 

 wooded area of France, exclusive of isolated trees, such as those growing in parks and on 

 roadsides, which were not planted for the sake of the timber they produce, amounted to 35,464 

 square miles, or a little more than 17 per cent, of the entire area of the country. The pro- 

 portion in other European countries is as follows, viz.: 



Per cent. 



IxUbSKl 4° 



Sweden 34 



Norway 29 J^ 



Germany 26 



Turkey 22 



Switzerland 18 



The average of all the European states, taken together, is 29^ per cent. The population 

 of France being 181 per square mile, it follows that the area of woodland per head is about 

 three-fiths of an acre. 



Some changes, which will be noted in a subsequent chapter, have taken place in the area 

 of the state forests since 1876, but in that year the woods and forests were owned in the fol- 

 lowing proportions by the different classes of proprietors, viz.: 



Square Per 



miles. cent. 



The state 3»734 = 10-7 



Communes and sections of communes 7,949 = 22.4 



Public institutions 124 ^ 0.3 



Private proprietors 23,657 = 6L\6 



Per cent. 



Greece 14 



Spain, Belgium, and Holland, each 7 



Portugal 5 



The British Isles 4 



Denmarlc 3^ 



Total 35,464 = 100 



and these figures may be taken as fairly representing the actual position at the present time. 



Forests ar^ not so exhausting to the soil as agricultural crops. In the case of the latter, 

 the entire plant, except the roots, which are sometimes also taken, is removed, whereas with a 

 crop of trees, the leaves, flowers, and fruit, which are far richer in nutritive elements than the 

 wood, are annually returned to the soil, and thus serve to maintain its productive power, as 

 well as, by their protective action, to keep it in a good physical condition. Hence forests can 

 nourish on comparatively poor soil ; some kinds of trees, notably most of the conifers, being 

 able to grow on ground that would be quite incapable of producing a series of remunerative 

 agricultural crops; and it is therefore, generally speaking, out of place to keep rich fertile 

 valleys under forests, which ought rather to be maintained on ground which cannot be profit- 

 ably cultivated. In well-populated districts, matters naturally tend to settle themselves in this 

 manner; the better classes of ground being brought under the plough, while every acre of the 

 rest of the country is kept wooded, in order to meet the domestic and agricultural wants of a 

 dense population. But it is otherwise in less favored localities. Here vast areas might be 

 devoted to the production of wood; but while, from the nature of the case, the local con- 

 sumption is in such places very small, the absence of communications frequently renders export 

 very difficult. Hence wood has but a very small value, and the forests tend to disappear 

 gradually before the excessive grazing. to which they are subjected; for the population of such 

 regions, being unable to make its living by agriculture, is, generally speaking, driven to adopt 

 a pastoral life. 



I'orests grow in France at all altitudes up to about 9,000 to 9,500 feet above the sea, a much 

 larger proportion of them being found at low than at high levels. Thus it has been calculated 



*From Vol. XI of the "Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society.' 



